Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, writing after His argument for justification by faith in Romans 3-4 and now unfolding the results and redemptive-historical magnitude of that justification.
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Romans 5
Peace with God, Rejoicing in Grace, and Life Through the One Man Jesus Christ
Those justified by faith have peace, hope, reconciliation, and life because Christ’s obedient grace triumphs over Adam’s trespass, sin’s increase, and death’s reign.
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Chapter Summary
Those justified by faith have peace, hope, reconciliation, and life because Christ’s obedient grace triumphs over Adam’s trespass, sin’s increase, and death’s reign.
Overview
Romans 5 argues that justification by faith gives believers present peace, grace-standing, hope, and assurance because God's love has been demonstrated in Christ's death and poured out by the Spirit. Then Paul broadens the gospel to the Adam-Christ contrast, showing that Christ's obedience and grace overcome Adam's sin, condemnation, and death.
Context
The Roman believers, a mixed Jewish-Gentile church needing assurance, suffering-shaped hope, reconciliation confidence, and a unified understanding of humanity in Adam and new life in Christ.
Romans 5 follows the Abrahamic proof of justification by faith in Romans 4 and transitions toward union-with-Christ and sanctification themes in Romans 6-8.
Those justified by faith have peace, hope, reconciliation, and life because Christ’s obedient grace triumphs over Adam’s trespass, sin’s increase, and death’s reign.
Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, writing after His argument for justification by faith in Romans 3-4 and now unfolding the results and redemptive-historical magnitude of that justification.
The Roman believers, a mixed Jewish-Gentile church needing assurance, suffering-shaped hope, reconciliation confidence, and a unified understanding of humanity in Adam and new life in Christ.
Romans 5 follows the Abrahamic proof of justification by faith in Romans 4 and transitions toward union-with-Christ and sanctification themes in Romans 6-8.
Social Pressure
- Believers in Rome faced pressures from suffering, shame, imperial power, ethnic distinction, and competing claims of security. Paul grounds their confidence in peace with God, the love of God poured out by the Spirit, and Christ's representative victory.
In a Roman world shaped by status, power, honor, and patronage, Paul speaks of grace, access, peace, reconciliation, and reigning in life through Christ. The chapter overturns worldly definitions of strength by grounding assurance in Christ's death for the powerless and ungodly.
Romans 5 is a major hinge between justification and new-life theology. It gathers Adam, sin, death, law, grace, righteousness, justification, reconciliation, and eternal life into one redemptive-historical contrast between Adam and Christ.
Chapter Movement
Paul moves from the benefits of justification, to rejoicing in suffering because of Spirit-poured love, to assurance grounded in Christ's death for enemies, and then to the Adam-Christ contrast where grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
Discourse Insight
Theological exposition and fulfillment
Romans 5 declares that justification by faith brings peace with God through Jesus Christ, access into grace, hope of glory, and reconciliation. The gospel is grounded in Christ's death for powerless, ungodly sinners and enemies, and it expands into the Adam-Christ contrast where Christ's obedience, grace, righteousness, and life overcome Adam's trespass, sin, condemnation, and death.
Structural Flow
Justification produces peace with God, stable access into grace, and hope of glory.
Suffering is not meaningless for the justified. God uses it to form perseverance, tested character, and hope grounded in His poured-out love.
God's love is demonstrated objectively in Christ's death for helpless sinners.
The 'much more' logic assures believers that those justified and reconciled by Christ's death will be saved through His life.
Adam's sin brought sin and death into the world, and death's reign shows humanity's solidarity in Adam.
Christ's gracious gift does not merely balance Adam's trespass; it overflows beyond it in justification, righteousness, and life.
Adam's trespass brings condemnation; Christ's obedient righteous act brings justification and life.
The law exposes and increases trespass, but grace abounds beyond sin and reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
Chapter Outline
- 5:1-2: Justified believers have peace with God, access into grace, and hope in God's glory through Christ.
- 5:3-5: Suffering becomes a pathway of formation because God's love has been poured into believers by the Holy Spirit.
- 5:6-8: God demonstrates His love by Christ's death for powerless sinners.
- 5:9-11: Those justified by Christ's blood and reconciled by His death will certainly be saved through His life.
- 5:12-14: Sin and death entered the world through Adam, and death reigned even before the Mosaic law.
- 5:15-17: God's grace in Christ overflows beyond Adam's trespass, bringing righteousness and reigning life.
- 5:18-19: Adam's disobedience results in condemnation, while Christ's obedience results in justification and righteousness.
- 5:20-21: Where sin increased, grace increased all the more and now reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
Theological Argument
Romans 5 argues that justification by faith gives believers present peace, grace-standing, hope, and assurance because God's love has been demonstrated in Christ's death and poured out by the Spirit. Then Paul broadens the gospel to the Adam-Christ contrast, showing that Christ's obedience and grace overcome Adam's sin, condemnation, and death.
The chapter moves from the personal benefits of justification to the cosmic reign of grace, from peace with God to eternal life, from suffering hope to Adam-Christ headship, and from death's reign to grace's reign through Jesus Christ.
- 1.Since believers have been justified by faith, they have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
- 2.Through Christ believers have access into the grace in which they stand.
- 3.The justified boast in hope of the glory of God.
- 4.Believers also boast in suffering because God uses suffering to produce perseverance, character, and hope.
- 5.Hope does not shame believers because God's love has been poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit.
- 6.God's love is demonstrated historically and objectively in Christ's death for the powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies.
- 7.If believers have been justified by Christ's blood, they will be saved from God's wrath through him.
- 8.If believers were reconciled to God through Christ's death while enemies, much more will they be saved through his life.
- 9.Believers boast in God through Christ because reconciliation has been received.
- 10.Sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin.
- 11.Death spread to all people because all sinned.
- 12.Sin existed before the Mosaic law, and death reigned from Adam to Moses.
- 13.Adam is a pattern of the one to come, but Christ's gift is greater than Adam's trespass.
- 14.The trespass of one brought death to many, but the grace of God and the gift by Jesus Christ overflow to many.
- 15.Judgment after one sin brought condemnation, but the gift after many trespasses brings justification.
- 16.Death reigned through Adam, but those receiving grace and righteousness reign in life through Christ.
- 17.One trespass resulted in condemnation for all; one righteous act resulted in justification and life.
- 18.One man's disobedience made many sinners; one man's obedience makes many righteous.
- 19.The law came so the trespass might increase, but grace increased all the more.
- 20.Grace reigns through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Theological Focus
- Justification by faith
- Peace with God
- Access into grace
- Hope of glory
- Suffering and perseverance
- God's love poured out by the Spirit
- Christ's substitutionary death
- Justification by Christ's blood
- Salvation from wrath
- Reconciliation with God
- Union and solidarity in Adam
- Original sin and death's reign
- Adam-Christ typology
- Grace surpassing sin
- Gift of righteousness
- Christ's obedience
- Grace reigning to eternal life
- The Results of Justification
- Standing in Grace
- Hope of Glory
- Suffering Under Grace
- The Love of God
- Christ Died for the Ungodly
- Reconciliation
- Adam and Christ
- Sin and Death
- Abounding Grace
- Christ’s Obedience
- Eternal Life Through Christ
- Justification
- Grace
- Hope
- Love of God
- Holy Spirit
- Atonement
- Salvation from Wrath
- Original Sin
- Federal or Representative Headship
- Death
- Gift of Righteousness
- Eternal Life
Theological Themes
Justification by faith produces peace with God, access into grace, hope of glory, reconciliation, and assurance of final salvation.
The justified are no longer under hostility before God but brought into reconciled peace through Jesus Christ.
Believers do not merely visit grace; they stand in it through Christ's mediating work.
Justification gives believers confidence that they will share in the glory of God from which sinners had fallen short.
Suffering is transformed by grace into a formation pathway producing perseverance, tested character, and hope.
God's love is both poured into believers by the Holy Spirit and demonstrated in Christ's death for sinners.
Christ's death is substitutionary, timely, and grace-driven, occurring while sinners were powerless, ungodly, and enemies.
The gospel does not merely remove guilt; it restores enemies to peace with God through Christ.
Paul contrasts two representative heads: Adam brings sin, death, and condemnation; Christ brings grace, righteousness, justification, and life.
Death's reign reveals the universal consequences of Adam's trespass and humanity's solidarity in sin.
Grace is not merely equal to sin; grace overflows, increases all the more, and reigns through righteousness.
The obedience of the one man Jesus Christ makes the many righteous, reversing Adam's disobedience.
Grace reigns through righteousness toward eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Covenant Significance
Romans 5 places the gospel within the widest covenantal and redemptive-historical frame. Adam functions as the representative head whose disobedience brings sin, death, and condemnation to humanity. Christ, the obedient last Adam figure, brings justification, righteousness, reconciliation, and eternal life. The Mosaic law enters the story not as the means of overcoming Adam's ruin but as the instrument by which trespass increases and sin is exposed, so that the superabundance of grace in Christ may be displayed.
Old Testament Connections
- Adam's trespass brings sin and death into the human realm.
- Death's reign from Adam to Moses shows the problem is deeper than Mosaic law-breaking alone.
- Adam is a pattern of Christ, establishing representative headship as a key redemptive-historical category.
- Christ's obedience reverses Adam's disobedience and provides righteousness for the many.
- The law increases the trespass by exposing and intensifying transgression.
- Grace in Christ exceeds Adam's trespass and the multiplied sins that follow.
- The promise of life is fulfilled not through Adamic humanity or law possession but through Christ's righteousness.
- The justified community stands in grace as a new humanity under Christ's representative lordship.
- Genesis 2:16-17
- Genesis 3:1-24
- Genesis 5:1-32
- Exodus 19:1-6
- Leviticus 18:5
- Deuteronomy 30:15-20
- Psalm 8:4-6
- Isaiah 53:10-12
- Daniel 12:2
Canonical Connections
Romans 5's peace with God fulfills the biblical longing for restored relationship between sinners and the holy God.
Romans 5 reverses humanity's falling short of God's glory by giving the justified hope in the glory of God.
Paul's formation pathway aligns with Scripture's broader witness that trials test and mature faith under God's hand.
Romans 5 presents Christ's death for sinners in harmony with the Servant's sin-bearing death and apostolic gospel proclamation.
Enemies are brought into restored relationship with God through Christ's death.
Romans 5 interprets Genesis 3 as the entrance of sin and death through Adam, shaping the biblical doctrine of human ruin.
Christ is the greater representative head whose obedience brings life in contrast to Adam's disobedience.
The law exposes and intensifies transgression but cannot overthrow grace's reign in Christ.
The chapter concludes with grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life, matching the biblical movement from death to life through Christ.
Cross References
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the...
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and...
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross. You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil...
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Provides immediate literary context around the same argument flow.
but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
Provides immediate literary context around the same argument flow.
Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also...
Provides immediate literary context around the same argument flow.
Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. Nevertheless death...
Provides immediate literary context around the same argument flow.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his...
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give...
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? Who could bring a charge...
Gospel Clarity
Romans 5 declares that justification by faith brings peace with God through Jesus Christ, access into grace, hope of glory, and reconciliation. The gospel is grounded in Christ's death for powerless, ungodly sinners and enemies, and it expands into the Adam-Christ contrast where Christ's obedience, grace, righteousness, and life overcome Adam's trespass, sin, condemnation, and death.
Gospel Guardrails
- Believers are justified by faith.
- Justified believers have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
- Believers have access into grace and stand in it.
- The justified boast in hope of the glory of God.
- God's love is poured into believers' hearts through the Holy Spirit.
- Christ died for the powerless and ungodly at the right time.
- God demonstrates His love in Christ's death for sinners.
- Believers are justified by Christ's blood.
- Believers will be saved from wrath through Christ.
- Believers are reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
- Believers will be saved through Christ's life.
- Sin and death entered through Adam.
- Grace and the gift of righteousness overflow through Jesus Christ.
- Christ's righteous act brings justification and life.
- Christ's obedience makes the many righteous.
- Grace increases beyond sin and reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
- Do not detach peace with God from justification by faith.
- Do not define God's love by circumstances before defining it by Christ's death for sinners.
- Do not preach suffering as meaningless for believers · Paul places it inside hope-producing formation.
- Do not make reconciliation a human achievement · it is received through Christ.
- Do not reduce sin to individual acts only · Romans 5 presents Adamic solidarity and death's reign.
- Do not treat Adam as optional to Paul's gospel logic · Adam is the representative contrast to Christ.
- Do not flatten Christ's work into moral example · His blood justifies, His death reconciles, His life saves, and His obedience makes righteous.
- Do not suggest grace merely matches sin · grace abounds all the more and reigns.
- Do not separate justification from eternal life · grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Christ.
- Do not use Romans 5 to teach universalism · the chapter speaks of those who receive grace and the gift of righteousness.
Gospel Cross References
For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the...
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and...
and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross. You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil...
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of...
Primary Emphasis
Romans 5 presents Jesus Christ as the mediator of peace, access, grace, reconciliation, salvation from wrath, and eternal life. He is the one whose blood justifies, whose death reconciles enemies, whose life guarantees final salvation, whose obedience makes the many righteous, and whose grace overcomes Adam's trespass, sin's increase, and death's reign.
Chapter Contribution
Romans 5 argues that justification by faith gives believers present peace, grace-standing, hope, and assurance because God's love has been demonstrated in Christ's death and poured out by the Spirit. Then Paul broadens the gospel to the Adam-Christ contrast, showing that Christ's obedience and grace overcome Adam's sin, condemnation, and death.
Doctrines in This Chapter
God’s grace in Christ surpasses the magnitude of human sin.
Adam and Christ function as representative heads whose actions affect many.
Through Christ’s obedience believers receive righteousness and life.
Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death to humanity.
Justification establishes objective reconciliation between God and the believer.
Suffering refines faith and strengthens hope rooted in God’s love.
Through Christ’s death and life, believers are restored to fellowship with God.
Christ died for sinners, demonstrating divine love and satisfying justice.
Doctrinal Weight
Justification by faith gives believers peace with God, access into grace, and assurance of final salvation.
Peace with God is the objective reconciled status of those justified through Jesus Christ.
Grace is the standing realm of the believer and the reigning power that overcomes sin and brings eternal life.
The justified boast in hope of God's glory, and suffering under grace strengthens rather than destroys this hope.
God's love is poured into believers by the Holy Spirit and objectively demonstrated in Christ's death for sinners.
The Spirit pours God's love into believers' hearts, giving present assurance of divine love.
Christ died for the ungodly, sinners, and enemies, and believers are justified by His blood.
Enemies are reconciled to God through the death of His Son and now boast in God through Christ.
Those justified by Christ's blood will be saved from God's wrath through Him.
Sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin, with death spreading to all because all sinned.
Adam and Christ are contrasted as representative heads whose actions affect the many.
Death reigns through Adam's trespass and reveals the universal consequence of sin.
The obedience of the one man Jesus Christ makes the many righteous and reverses Adam's disobedience.
Those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through Christ.
Grace reigns through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reading Lenses
Theological exposition and fulfillment
- Romans 5 declares that justification by faith brings peace with God through Jesus Christ, access into grace, hope of glory, and reconciliation. The gospel is grounded in Christ's death for powerless, ungodly sinners and enemies, and it expands into the Adam-Christ contrast where Christ's obedience, grace, righteousness, and life overcome Adam's trespass, sin, condemnation, and death.
Key Greek Terms
Form in passage Aorist · Passive · Participle · Plural What is this?
Sense to justify; declare righteous
Definition Believers have been justified by faith and by Christ's blood.
References Romans 5:1, 5:9
Lexicon to justify; declare righteous
Why it matters Romans 5 unfolds the results and assurance that flow from the justifying verdict.
Sense faith; trust; believing reliance
Definition Justification is by faith, resulting in peace with God.
References Romans 5:1
Lexicon faith; trust; believing reliance
Why it matters Faith is the means by which believers receive the justification whose benefits Romans 5 celebrates.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense peace; wholeness; reconciled relationship
Definition The justified have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
References Romans 5:1
Lexicon peace; wholeness; reconciled relationship
Why it matters Peace here is objective reconciliation with God, not merely inner calm.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense access; introduction; approach
Definition Through Christ believers have access by faith into grace.
References Romans 5:2
Lexicon access; introduction; approach
Why it matters Justification grants believers stable approach to God in the realm of grace.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense grace; favor; gift; gracious power
Definition Believers stand in grace, receive grace in Christ, and are under grace's reign.
References Romans 5:2, 5:15, 5:17, 5:20-21
Lexicon grace; favor; gift; gracious power
Why it matters Romans 5 presents grace not only as pardon but as the reigning power that triumphs over sin.
Form in passage Perfect · Active · Indicative · 1st Person · Plural What is this?
Sense to stand; be established; remain firm
Definition Believers stand in grace through Christ.
References Romans 5:2
Lexicon to stand; be established; remain firm
Why it matters The justified believer's position is stable because it rests on Christ and grace.
Form in passage Dative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense hope; confident expectation
Definition Believers boast in hope of God's glory, and hope does not shame.
References Romans 5:2, 5:4-5
Lexicon hope; confident expectation
Why it matters Hope is the future-facing confidence produced by justification, suffering formation, and God's love.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense glory; honor; splendor
Definition The justified boast in the hope of the glory of God.
References Romans 5:2
Lexicon glory; honor; splendor
Why it matters Romans 5 answers Romans 3:23 by giving believers hope of the glory sinners lack.
Form in passage Nominative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense tribulation; affliction; pressure
Definition Believers boast in sufferings because God uses them to produce perseverance and hope.
References Romans 5:3
Lexicon tribulation; affliction; pressure
Why it matters Grace does not remove all affliction but transforms its purpose in the believer's formation.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense endurance; perseverance; steadfastness
Definition Suffering produces perseverance.
References Romans 5:3-4
Lexicon endurance; perseverance; steadfastness
Why it matters Perseverance is part of God's grace-shaped formation in justified believers.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense tested character; approvedness; proven genuineness
Definition Perseverance produces tested character.
References Romans 5:4
Lexicon tested character; approvedness; proven genuineness
Why it matters God uses suffering to produce proven faithfulness rather than empty endurance.
Form in passage Present · Active · Indicative · 3rd Person · Singular What is this?
Sense to shame; disappoint; disgrace
Definition Hope does not put believers to shame because God's love has been poured out by the Spirit.
References Romans 5:5
Lexicon to shame; disappoint; disgrace
Why it matters Christian hope will not collapse because it rests on God's love and promise.
Form in passage Nominative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense love; covenantal, self-giving love
Definition God's love is poured into believers and demonstrated in Christ's death.
References Romans 5:5, 5:8
Lexicon love; covenantal, self-giving love
Why it matters The believer's assurance rests on God's love experienced by the Spirit and proven at the cross.
Form in passage Perfect · Passive · Indicative · 3rd Person · Singular What is this?
Sense to pour out; shed abroad; lavishly give
Definition God's love has been poured into believers' hearts through the Holy Spirit.
References Romans 5:5
Lexicon to pour out; shed abroad; lavishly give
Why it matters Assurance is not merely intellectual; the Spirit ministers God's love inwardly to believers.
Sense Holy Spirit; God's Spirit
Definition God pours his love into believers' hearts through the Holy Spirit.
References Romans 5:5
Lexicon Holy Spirit; God's Spirit
Why it matters Romans 5 introduces the Spirit as the giver of inward assurance before Romans 8 expands Spirit-life.
Form in passage Genitive · Plural · Masculine What is this?
Sense weak; powerless; without strength
Definition Christ died for believers while they were still powerless.
References Romans 5:6
Lexicon weak; powerless; without strength
Why it matters The gospel begins with human inability, not human strength.
Form in passage Genitive · Plural · Masculine What is this?
Sense ungodly; impious; irreverent toward God
Definition Christ died for the ungodly.
References Romans 5:6
Lexicon ungodly; impious; irreverent toward God
Why it matters Christ's death is for those lacking godliness, not those already worthy.
Sense to demonstrate; commend; prove
Definition God demonstrates his own love in Christ's death for sinners.
References Romans 5:8
Lexicon to demonstrate; commend; prove
Why it matters The cross is the objective proof of God's love.
Form in passage Genitive · Plural · Masculine What is this?
Sense sinners; those characterized by sin
Definition Christ died for believers while they were still sinners.
References Romans 5:8
Lexicon sinners; those characterized by sin
Why it matters The gospel rests on grace toward the guilty, not worthiness in the recipient.
Form in passage Dative · Singular · Neuter What is this?
Sense blood; sacrificial death; life poured out
Definition Believers are justified by Christ's blood.
References Romans 5:9
Lexicon blood; sacrificial death; life poured out
Why it matters Justification is grounded in Christ's atoning death.
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense wrath; God's righteous judgment against sin
Definition Those justified by Christ's blood will be saved from wrath through him.
References Romans 5:9
Lexicon wrath; God's righteous judgment against sin
Why it matters Romans 5 maintains the reality of divine wrath while giving assurance of salvation through Christ.
Form in passage Aorist · Passive · Indicative · 1st Person · Plural What is this?
Sense to reconcile; restore relationship; bring from enmity to peace
Definition Believers were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.
References Romans 5:10
Lexicon to reconcile; restore relationship; bring from enmity to peace
Why it matters The gospel restores enemies to God through Christ's death.
Form in passage Nominative · Plural · Masculine What is this?
Sense enemies; hostile ones
Definition Believers were reconciled to God while they were enemies.
References Romans 5:10
Lexicon enemies; hostile ones
Why it matters This term shows the depth of the sinner's condition and the greatness of reconciliation.
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense sin; rebellion; guilt; power
Definition Sin entered the world through one man and increased under the law, but grace abounded beyond it.
References Romans 5:12-13, 5:20-21
Lexicon sin; rebellion; guilt; power
Why it matters Romans 5 treats sin as both act and reigning power tied to Adamic humanity.
Form in passage Nominative · Singular · Masculine What is this?
Sense death; physical and spiritual consequence of sin
Definition Death entered through sin and reigned from Adam onward.
References Romans 5:12, 5:14, 5:17, 5:21
Lexicon death; physical and spiritual consequence of sin
Why it matters Death's reign reveals Adamic ruin and the need for Christ's life-giving grace.
Form in passage Aorist · Active · Indicative · 3rd Person · Singular What is this?
Sense to reign; rule as king
Definition Death reigned through Adam, but grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
References Romans 5:14, 5:17, 5:21
Lexicon to reign; rule as king
Why it matters Romans 5 frames death, believers, and grace in reign language, showing the transfer from death's dominion to grace's dominion.
Form in passage Dative · Singular · Neuter What is this?
Sense trespass; transgression; false step
Definition Adam's trespass brought death and condemnation, but Christ's gift overflows beyond it.
References Romans 5:15-18, 5:20
Lexicon trespass; transgression; false step
Why it matters The chapter repeatedly contrasts Adam's trespass with Christ's gracious gift.
Form in passage Nominative · Singular · Neuter What is this?
Sense gift; gracious gift
Definition The gift in Christ is not like the trespass and brings justification.
References Romans 5:15-16
Lexicon gift; gracious gift
Why it matters Paul emphasizes salvation as God's gracious gift that surpasses Adam's ruin.
Form in passage Accusative · Singular · Neuter What is this?
Sense condemnation; judicial sentence
Definition Adam's trespass resulted in condemnation.
References Romans 5:16, 5:18
Lexicon condemnation; judicial sentence
Why it matters Christ's justification and life must be understood against Adam's condemnation.
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense righteousness; right standing; righteous order
Definition Believers receive the gift of righteousness, and grace reigns through righteousness.
References Romans 5:17, 5:21
Lexicon righteousness; right standing; righteous order
Why it matters Righteousness is the gift and reign-pathway by which grace brings eternal life.
Form in passage Dative · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense life; true life; resurrection life; eternal life
Definition Those receiving grace and righteousness reign in life through Christ.
References Romans 5:17-18, 5:21
Lexicon life; true life; resurrection life; eternal life
Why it matters Christ's work replaces death's reign with life through grace.
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Neuter What is this?
Sense righteous act; righteous requirement; righteous deed
Definition Christ's one righteous act results in justification and life.
References Romans 5:18
Lexicon righteous act; righteous requirement; righteous deed
Why it matters Christ's obedient work is the representative act that reverses Adam's condemnation.
Form in passage Genitive · Singular · Feminine What is this?
Sense obedience; submissive hearing and action
Definition Through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous.
References Romans 5:19
Lexicon obedience; submissive hearing and action
Why it matters Christ's obedience is central to His representative work for justification and life.
Sense law; Mosaic law
Definition The law came in so that the trespass might increase.
References Romans 5:13, 5:20
Lexicon law; Mosaic law
Why it matters The law exposes and intensifies transgression but does not overcome grace.
Form in passage Aorist · Active · Subjunctive · 3rd Person · Singular What is this?
Sense to increase; multiply; abound
Definition The law came so the trespass might increase.
References Romans 5:20
Lexicon to increase; multiply; abound
Why it matters Paul explains the law's role in exposing and multiplying trespass within redemptive history.
Form in passage Aorist · Active · Indicative · 3rd Person · Singular What is this?
Sense to superabound; abound beyond measure
Definition Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
References Romans 5:20
Lexicon to superabound; abound beyond measure
Why it matters The term magnifies the superiority of grace over sin's increase.
Sense eternal life; life of the age to come
Definition Grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
References Romans 5:21
Lexicon eternal life; life of the age to come
Why it matters Romans 5 ends with the final goal of grace's reign: eternal life in Christ.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
Discourse Connectives (36)
grounds / explanation 9inference / conclusion 3strong contrast / correction 4purpose clause 2conditional clause 3content marker or causal 3continuation or mild contrast 10contrast setup (μέν...δέ) 1additive / emphatic 1
| v.1 | οὖνthereforeinference / conclusionAsk: what has Paul argued up to this point? 'Therefore' is the payoff. |
| v.3 | δέ,now,continuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.ἀλλὰbutstrong contrast / correctionAsk: what is being set aside? What is being asserted instead?ὅτιthatcontent marker or causalIf ὅτι follows a verb of speaking/knowing/believing, it introduces content. If it follows a statement, it introduces a reason. |
| v.4 | δὲAndcontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.δὲandcontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast. |
| v.5 | δὲAndcontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.ὅτιbecausecontent marker or causalIf ὅτι follows a verb of speaking/knowing/believing, it introduces content. If it follows a statement, it introduces a reason. |
| v.6 | γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.7 | γὰρindeedgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point.γὰρthoughgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.8 | δὲhowevercontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.ὅτιthatcontent marker or causalIf ὅτι follows a verb of speaking/knowing/believing, it introduces content. If it follows a statement, it introduces a reason. |
| v.9 | οὖνthereforeinference / conclusionAsk: what has Paul argued up to this point? 'Therefore' is the payoff. |
| v.10 | ΕἰIfconditional clauseAsk whether Paul treats the 'if' as assumed true (1st class) or merely hypothetical.γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.11 | δέ,now,continuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.ἀλλὰbutstrong contrast / correctionAsk: what is being set aside? What is being asserted instead? |
| v.13 | γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point.δὲhowevercontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast. |
| v.14 | ἀλλ᾽Neverthelessstrong contrast / correctionAsk: what is being set aside? What is being asserted instead? |
| v.15 | ἀλλ᾽Butstrong contrast / correctionAsk: what is being set aside? What is being asserted instead?εἰIfconditional clauseAsk whether Paul treats the 'if' as assumed true (1st class) or merely hypothetical.γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.16 | καὶAndadditive / emphaticClause-initial καί in Paul often links equal-weight clauses that should be read together.μὲνindeedcontrast setup (μέν...δέ)The μέν...δέ pair is a rhetorical hinge. Both sides matter equally.γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point.δὲhowevercontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast. |
| v.17 | ΕἰIfconditional clauseAsk whether Paul treats the 'if' as assumed true (1st class) or merely hypothetical.γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.18 | οὖνtheninference / conclusionAsk: what has Paul argued up to this point? 'Therefore' is the payoff. |
| v.19 | γὰρforgrounds / explanationAsk: what claim is this 'for' grounding? That claim is the main point. |
| v.20 | δὲnowcontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast.ἵναso thatpurpose clauseἵνα clauses often contain the theological payoff: 'so that God might...'δὲhowevercontinuation or mild contrastNote where δέ appears in a μέν...δέ pair — that structure is a deliberate contrast. |
| v.21 | ἵναso thatpurpose clauseἵνα clauses often contain the theological payoff: 'so that God might...' |
Discourse data: STEPBible TAGNT (CC BY 4.0)
Verb Aspect (44 main verbs)
completed 15ongoing 8prospective 4resultant 3subjunctive 2infinitive 1participle 11
| v.1 | Δικαιωθέντεςdikaióōjustifiedaorist passive participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionἔχομενéchōhavepresent active indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truth |
| v.2 | ἐσχήκαμενéchōobtainedperfect active indicativeresultantPerfect indicative — completed action with present resultἑστήκαμενhístēmistandperfect active indicativeresultantPerfect indicative — completed action with present resultκαυχώμεθαkaucháomairejoicepresent middle indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truth |
| v.3 | καυχώμεθαkaucháomairejoicepresent middle indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truthεἰδότεςeídōknowingperfect active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionκατεργάζεταιkatergázomaiproducespresent middle indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truth |
| v.5 | καταισχύνειkataischýnōdisappointpresent active indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truthἐκκέχυταιekchéōpoured outperfect passive indicativeresultantPerfect indicative — completed action with present resultδοθέντοςdídōmigivenaorist passive participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting action |
| v.6 | ἀπέθανενdiedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.7 | ἀποθανεῖταιdiefuture middle indicativeprospectiveFuture indicative — anticipated or promised actionτολμᾷtolmáōdarepresent active indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truthἀποθανεῖνdieaorist active infinitiveinfinitiveInfinitive — verbal noun or complementary verb |
| v.8 | συνίστησινsynistáōdemonstratespresent active indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truthἀπέθανενdiedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.9 | δικαιωθέντεςdikaióōjustifiedaorist passive participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionσωθησόμεθαsṓzōsavedfuture passive indicativeprospectiveFuture indicative — anticipated or promised action |
| v.10 | κατηλλάγημενkatallássōreconciledaorist passive indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionκαταλλαγέντεςkatallássōreconciledaorist passive participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionσωθησόμεθαsṓzōsavedfuture passive indicativeprospectiveFuture indicative — anticipated or promised action |
| v.11 | καυχώμενοιkaucháomairejoicepresent middle participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionἐλάβομενlambánōreceivedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.12 | εἰσῆλθενeisérchomaienteredaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionδιῆλθενdiérchomaispreadaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionἥμαρτονsinnedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.13 | ἐλλογεῖταιellogéōimputedpresent passive indicativeongoingPresent indicative — ongoing, habitual, or general truthὄντοςṓnispresent active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting action |
| v.14 | ἐβασίλευσενreignedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionἁμαρτήσανταςsinaorist active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionμέλλοντοςméllōcomepresent active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting action |
| v.15 | ἀπέθανονdiedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionἐπερίσσευσενperisseúōaboundedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.16 | ἁμαρτήσαντοςsinaorist active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting action |
| v.17 | ἐβασίλευσενreignedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionλαμβάνοντεςlambánōreceivepresent active participleparticipleParticiple — verbal adjective, supporting actionβασιλεύσουσινreignfuture active indicativeprospectiveFuture indicative — anticipated or promised action |
| v.20 | παρεισῆλθενpareisérchomaicame inaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionπλεονάσῃpleonázōincreaseaorist active subjunctivesubjunctiveSubjunctive mood — conditional, purpose, or contingentἐπλεόνασενpleonázōincreasedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionὑπερεπερίσσευσενhyperperisseúōabounded all the moreaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed action |
| v.21 | ἐβασίλευσενreignedaorist active indicativecompletedAorist indicative — punctiliar or completed actionβασιλεύσῃreignaorist active subjunctivesubjunctiveSubjunctive mood — conditional, purpose, or contingent |
Verb forms indicate aspect — not interpretive weight. Consult context before drawing conclusions about emphasis.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Word Pictures (Robertson)
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (1930–31) — public domain
Formation Focus
To show that justification by faith brings peace, grace-standing, hope, reconciliation, and final salvation, and that Christ's representative obedience triumphs over Adam's sin, condemnation, and death.
To strengthen believers with gospel assurance, interpret suffering through hope, ground God's love in the cross, and train the church to see grace as reigning power rather than mere pardon language.
Assurance, endurance, hope, humility, gratitude, reconciled worship, confidence in Christ's obedience, and resistance to despair under suffering.
Practice Response
- Begin prayer by confessing peace with God through Jesus Christ.
- Name the grace in which You stand before naming the pressures You face.
- Trace a present suffering through Paul's formation chain: suffering, perseverance, character, hope.
- When doubting God's love, return to Christ's death for the ungodly.
- Memorize Romans 5:8 as a guard against performance-based assurance.
- Practice gospel reasoning: if reconciled by Christ's death, much more saved through His life.
- Study Genesis 3 alongside Romans 5 to understand Adam's ruin and Christ's greater grace.
- Confess where death, sin, or condemnation feels stronger than grace.
- Rehearse that grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Warnings and Misreadings
- Romans 5 warns against minimizing sin, death, wrath, or Adamic condemnation, because the glory of grace is only understood when the depth of human ruin is faced. It also warns against treating suffering as proof of God's absence when Paul presents suffering within the justified believer's hope-filled formation.
- Peace with God means merely feeling peaceful. - Romans 5 speaks first of an objective reconciled status before God through justification, though this truth may also comfort the believer subjectively.
- Grace means Christians will not suffer. - Paul says believers boast in sufferings because grace transforms suffering into perseverance, character, and hope.
- God's love is mainly proven by improved circumstances. - Romans 5 grounds God's love in Christ's death for powerless, ungodly sinners and in the Spirit's pouring out of that love into believers' hearts.
- Christ died for people who had already made themselves worthy. - Paul emphasizes that Christ died while we were powerless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies.
- Reconciliation is only a change in human attitude toward God. - Romans 5 teaches that sinners were enemies and were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, indicating an objective restored relationship accomplished by God.
- Adam is merely an illustration with no representative significance. - Paul treats Adam as the one man through whom sin and death entered and as a pattern of Christ, making representative headship central to the argument.
- Romans 5 teaches universal salvation because justification and life are mentioned for all. - The chapter must be read with the repeated emphasis on receiving God's grace and the gift of righteousness, and with Romans' wider teaching on faith in Christ.
- The law is responsible for sin's existence. - Paul says sin was in the world before the law. The law increases trespass by exposing and defining transgression, but sin entered through Adam.
- Grace merely balances sin. - Paul says grace overflows, increases all the more, and reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
- Justification is only a legal abstraction. - Romans 5 shows justification leading to peace, grace-standing, hope, Spirit-poured love, reconciliation, and eternal life.
Discipleship Questions
- Do I live as someone who has peace with God, or as someone still trying to negotiate peace with God?
- Am I standing in grace, or am I standing in my performance, emotions, ministry success, or self-measurement?
- What does it mean for me to boast in the hope of the glory of God this week?
- How do I typically interpret suffering: as abandonment, punishment, inconvenience, or formation under grace?
- Where is God producing perseverance, character, and hope through present difficulty?
- Do I ground God's love in the cross, or do I measure it mainly by circumstances?
- Do I remember that Christ died for me while I was powerless and ungodly?
- How does reconciliation with God reshape my prayer, worship, and assurance?
- Do I take sin and death as seriously as Romans 5 does?
- Do I see myself merely as an individual sinner, or as someone once in Adam and now alive through Christ?
- Where do I need to believe that grace is greater than the trespass?
- How does Christ's obedience become the ground of my confidence before God?
Pastoral Applications
- Believers should reason from the cross forward: if God justified and reconciled enemies through Christ's death, He will surely save them through Christ's life.
- Pastors should teach suffering not as a contradiction of grace but as a place where grace forms perseverance, character, and hope.
- Romans 5 anchors the discouraged believer in objective peace with God, God's demonstrated love, and the Spirit's inward assurance.
- The gospel should be proclaimed to the powerless and ungodly because Christ died for sinners, not for the self-qualified.
- The church should boast in God through Jesus Christ because reconciliation has been received, not achieved.
- Teaching should go deeper than individual bad choices and explain Adam, sin, death, condemnation, and humanity's need for a representative Redeemer.
- Believers must learn to see their identity in Christ, the obedient representative head, rather than under Adam's reign of sin and death.
- Hope must be defined by the glory of God and eternal life through Christ, not by immediate relief from hardship.
- Romans 5 enriches remembrance by highlighting Christ's blood, reconciliation, peace with God, and grace reigning through righteousness.
Pastoral Trajectories
Paul moves from the declared righteousness of Romans 3-4 into the settled peace with God enjoyed by the justified.
Believers do not merely begin by grace; they stand continuously in grace through Christ.
Suffering under grace produces perseverance, tested character, and hope rather than despair.
God's love is not guessed from circumstances but demonstrated at the cross and poured out by the Spirit.
The gospel moves sinners from hostility to received reconciliation through the death of God's Son.
The chapter shifts from Adam's trespass and death's reign to Christ's obedience and grace's reign.
Adam's trespass brings condemnation, but Christ's righteous act brings justification and life.
Even where sin increases under the law, grace increases all the more and reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
Motifs in This Chapter
Follow faith, believing response, trust, and persevering allegiance across Scripture.
Trace how divine glory, revealed majesty, and Christ-centered exaltation move across Scripture.
Track judgment as covenant accountability, divine justice, and eschatological reckoning.
Follow resurrection hope, vindication, and life-over-death patterns across the canon.
Trace servant identity, obedient mission, and suffering service across Scripture.
Trace the Spirit's presence, empowerment, renewal, and mission-bearing work across Scripture.
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
Paul moves from the benefits of justification, to rejoicing in suffering because of Spirit-poured love, to assurance grounded in Christ's death for enemies, and then to the Adam-Christ contrast where grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life.
Romans 5 places the gospel within the widest covenantal and redemptive-historical frame. Adam functions as the representative head whose disobedience brings sin, death, and condemnation to humanity. Christ, the obedient last Adam figure, brings justification, righteousness, reconciliation, and eternal life. The Mosaic law enters the story not as the means of overcoming Adam's ruin but as the instrument by which trespass increases and sin is exposed, so that the superabundance of grace in Christ may be displayed.
Romans 5 declares that justification by faith brings peace with God through Jesus Christ, access into grace, hope of glory, and reconciliation. The gospel is grounded in Christ's death for powerless, ungodly sinners and enemies, and it expands into the Adam-Christ contrast where Christ's obedience, grace, righteousness, and life overcome Adam's trespass, sin, condemnation, and death.
Assurance, endurance, hope, humility, gratitude, reconciled worship, confidence in Christ's obedience, and resistance to despair under suffering.
Focus Points
- Justification by faith
- Peace with God
- Access into grace
- Hope of glory
- Suffering and perseverance
- God's love poured out by the Spirit
- Christ's substitutionary death
- Justification by Christ's blood
- Salvation from wrath
- Reconciliation with God
- Union and solidarity in Adam
- Original sin and death's reign
- Adam-Christ typology
- Grace surpassing sin
- Gift of righteousness
- Christ's obedience
- Grace reigning to eternal life
- The Results of Justification
- Standing in Grace
- Suffering Under Grace
- The Love of God
- Christ Died for the Ungodly
- Reconciliation
- Adam and Christ
- Sin and Death
- Abounding Grace
- Christ’s Obedience
- Eternal Life Through Christ
- Justification
- Grace
- Hope
- Love of God
- Holy Spirit
- Atonement
- Original Sin
- Federal or Representative Headship
- Death
- Eternal Life
Cross References
Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that You eat of it, You will surely die.”
Adam's command background
Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat...
Entrance of sin and death
All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then He died.
Death's reign
What is man, that You think of Him? What is the son of man, that You care for Him? For You have made Him a little lower than the angels, and crowned Him with glory and honor. You make Him ruler over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under His feet:
Human glory and dominion
But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on Him; and by His wounds we are healed.
Peace through the suffering servant
Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise Him. He has caused Him to suffer. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He will see His offspring. He will prolong His days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of Himself; and He...
Righteous servant and the many
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
God's love and life
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
Justification and glory context
But for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
Immediate gospel foundation
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t You know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Grace and new life continuation
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
Hope of glory expanded
For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Adam and Christ
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
Last Adam theology
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were...
Reconciliation
Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Law and transgression
For He is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man of the two, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.
Peace through Christ
Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Grace and eternal life
Count it all joy, my brothers, when You fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of Your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that You may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Suffering and perseverance
Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring You to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit,
Christ died for sinners
Passages
Chapter opening: Romans 5:1-11
Being therefore justified by faith (δικαιωθεντες ουν εκ πιστεως). First aorist passive participle of δικαιοω, to set right and expressing antecedent action to the verb εχωμεν. The ουν refers to the preceding conclusive argument (chapters 1 to 4) that this is done by faith. Let us have peace with God (ειρηνην εχωμεν προς τον θεον). This is the correct text beyond a doubt, the present active subjunctive, not εχομεν (present active indicative) of the Textus Receptus which even the American Standard Bible accepts.
It is curious how perverse many real scholars have been on this word and phrase here. Godet, for instance. Vincent says that "it is difficult if not impossible to explain it." One has only to observe the force of the tense to see Paul's meaning clearly. The mode is the volitive subjunctive and the present tense expresses linear action and so does not mean "make peace" as the ingressive aorist subjunctive ειρηνην σχωμεν would mean.
A good example of σχωμεν occurs in Mt 21:38 (σχωμεν την κληρονομιαν αυτου) where it means: "Let us get hold of his inheritance." Here ειρηνην εχωμεν can only mean: "Let us enjoy peace with God" or "Let us retain peace with God." We have in Ac 9:31 ειχεν ειρηνην (imperfect and so linear), the church "enjoyed peace," not "made peace." The preceding justification (δικαιωθεντες) "made peace with God."
Observe προς (face to face) with τον θεον and δια (intermediate agent) with του κυριου.
We have had (εσχηκαμεν). Perfect active indicative of εχω (same verb as εχωμεν), still have it. Our access (τεν προσαγωγην). Old word from προσαγω, to bring to, to introduce. Hence "introduction," "approach." Elsewhere in N. T. only Eph 2:18 ; 3:12 . Wherein we stand (εν η εστηκαμεν). Perfect active (intransitive) indicative of ιστημ. Grace is here present as a field into which we have been introduced and where we stand and we should enjoy all the privileges of this grace about us.
Let us rejoice (καυχωμεθα). "Let us exult." Present middle subjunctive (volitive) because εχωμεν is accepted as correct. The exhortation is that we keep on enjoying peace with God and keep on exulting in hope of the glory of God.
But let us also rejoice in our tribulations (αλλα κα καυχωμεθα εν ταις θλιψεσιν). Present middle subjunctive of same verb as in verse 2 . Καυχωμα is more than "rejoice," rather "glory," "exult." These three volitive subjunctives (εχωμεν, καυχωμεθα, twice) hold up the high ideal for the Christian after, and because of, his being set right with God. It is one thing to submit to or endure tribulations without complaint, but it is another to find ground of glorying in the midst of them as Paul exhorts here.
Knowing (ειδοτες). Second perfect participle of ειδον (οιδα), giving the reason for the previous exhortation to glory in tribulations. He gives a linked chain, one linking to the other (tribulation θλιψις, patience υπομονη, experience δοκιμη, hope ελπις) running into verse 5 . On δοκιμη, see 2Co 2:9 .
Hath been shed abroad (εκκεχυτα). Perfect passive indicative of εκχεω, to pour out. "Has been poured out" in our hearts.
For (ετ γαρ). So most documents, but B reads ε γε which Westcott and Hort use in place of γαρ. While we were yet weak (οντων ημων ασθενων ετ). Genitive absolute. The second ετ (yet) here probably gave rise to the confusion of text over ετ γαρ above. In due season (κατα καιρον). Christ came into the world at the proper time, the fulness of the time ( Ga 4:4 ; Eph 1:10 ; Tit 1:3 ). I or the ungodly (υπερ ασεβων). In behalf, instead of. See about υπερ on Ga 3:13 and also verse 7 here.
Scarcely (μολις). Common adverb from μολος, toil. See on Ac 14:18 . As between δικαιος, righteous, and αγαθος, good, Lightfoot notes "all the difference in the world" which he shows by quotations from Plato and Christian writers, a difference of sympathy mainly, the δικαιος man being "absolutely without sympathy" while the αγαθος man "is beneficent and kind."
Would even dare (κα τολμα). Present active indicative of τολμαω, to have courage. "Even dares to." Even so in the case of the kindly sympathetic man courage is called for to make the supreme sacrifice. Perhaps (ταχα). Common adverb (perhaps instrumental case) from ταχυς (swift). Only here in N. T.
His own love (την εαυτου αγαπην). See Joh 3:16 as the best comment here. While we were yet sinners (ετ αμαρτωλων οντων). Genitive absolute again. Not because we were Jews or Greeks, rich or poor, righteous or good, but plain sinners. Cf. Lu 18:13 , the plea of the publican, "μο τω αμαρτωλω."
Much more then (πολλω ουν μαλλον). Argument from the greater to the less. The great thing is the justification in Christ's blood. The final salvation (σωθησομεθα, future passive indicative) is less of a mystery.
We were reconciled to God (κατηλλαγημεν τω θεω). Second aorist passive indicative of καταλλασσω for which great Pauline word see on 2Co 5:18 f . The condition is the first class. Paul does not conceive it as his or our task to reconcile God to us. God has attended to that himself ( Ro 3:25 f. ). We become reconciled to God by means of the death of God's Son. "Much more" again we shall be saved "by his life" (εν τη ζωη αυτου). "In his life," for he does live, "ever living to intercede for them" ( Heb 7:25 ).
But also glorying in God (αλλα κα καυχωμενο εν τω θεω). Basis of all the exultation above (verses 1-5 ). Through whom we have now received the reconciliation (δ ου νυν την καταλλαγην ελαβομεν). Second aorist active indicative of λαμβανω, looked at as a past realization, "now" (νυν) in contrast with the future consummation and a sure pledge and guarantee of it.
Therefore (δια τουτο). "For this reason." What reason? Probably the argument made in verses 1-11 , assuming our justification and urging exultant joy in Christ because of the present reconciliation by Christ's death and the certainty of future final salvation by his life. As through one man (ωσπερ δι' ενος ανθρωπου). Paul begins a comparison between the effects of Adam's sin and the effects of the redemptive work of Christ, but he does not give the second member of the comparison.
Instead of that he discusses some problems about sin and death and starts over again in verse 15 . The general point is plain that the effects of Adam's sin are transmitted to his descendants, though he does not say how it was done whether by the natural or the federal headship of Adam. It is important to note that Paul does not say that the whole race receives the full benefit of Christ's atoning death, but only those who do.
Christ is the head of all believers as Adam is the head of the race. In this sense Adam "is a figure of him that was to come." Sin entered into the world (η αμαρτια εις τον κοσμον εισηλθεν). Personification of sin and represented as coming from the outside into the world of humanity. Paul does not discuss the origin of evil beyond this fact. There are some today who deny the fact of sin at all and who call it merely "an error of mortal mind" (a notion) while others regard it as merely an animal inheritance devoid of ethical quality.
And so death passed unto all men (κα ουτως εις παντας ανθρωπους διηλθεν). Note use of διερχομα rather than εισερχομα, just before, second aorist active indicative in both instances. By "death" in Ge 2:17 ; 3:19 physical death is meant, but in verses 17 , 21 eternal death is Paul's idea and that lurks constantly behind physical death with Paul. For that all sinned (εφ' ω παντες ημαρτον).
Constative (summary) aorist active indicative of αμαρτανω, gathering up in this one tense the history of the race (committed sin). The transmission from Adam became facts of experience. In the old Greek εφ' ω usually meant "on condition that," but "because" in N. T. (Robertson, Grammar , p. 963).
Until the law (αχρ νομου). Until the Mosaic law. Sin was there before the Mosaic law, for the Jews were like Gentiles who had the law of reason and conscience ( 2:12-16 ), but the coming of the law increased their responsibility and their guilt ( 2:9 ). Sin is not imputed (αμαρτια δε ουκ ελλογειτα). Present passive indicative of late verb ελλογαω (-εω) from εν and λογος, to put down in the ledger to one's account, examples in inscription and papyri.
When there is no law (μη οντος νομου). Genitive absolute, no law of any kind, he means. There was law before the Mosaic law. But what about infants and idiots in case of death? Do they have responsibility? Surely not. The sinful nature which they inherit is met by Christ's atoning death and grace. No longer do men speak of "elect infants."
Even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression (κα επ τους μη αμαρτησαντας επ τω ομοιωματ της παραβασεως Αδαμ). Adam violated an express command of God and Moses gave the law of God clearly. And yet sin and death followed all from Adam on till Moses, showing clearly that the sin of Adam brought terrible consequences upon the race.
Death has come upon infants and idiots also as a result of sin, but one understands Paul to mean that they are not held responsible by the law of conscience. A figure (τυπος). See on Ac 7:43 ; 1Th 1:7 ; 2Th 3:9 ; 1Co 10:6 for this word. Adam is a type of Christ in holding a relation to those affected by the headship in each case, but the parallel is not precise as Paul shows.
But not as the trespass (αλλ' ουχ ως). It is more contrast than parallel: "the trespass" (το παραπτωμα, the slip, fall to one side) over against the free gift (το χαρισμα, of grace χαρις). Much more (πολλω μαλλον). Another a fortiori argument. Why so? As a God of love he delights much more in showing mercy and pardon than in giving just punishment (Lightfoot). The gift surpasses the sin. It is not necessary to Paul's argument to make "the many" in each case correspond, one relates to Adam, the other to Christ.
Through one that sinned (δι' ενος αμαρτησαντος). "Through one having sinned." That is Adam. Another contrast, difference in source (εκ). Of one (εξ ενος). Supply παραπτωματος, Adam's one transgression. Of many trespasses (εκ πολλων παραπτωματων). The gift by Christ grew out of manifold sins by Adam's progeny. Justification (δικαιωμα). Act of righteousness, result, ordinance ( 1:32 ; 2:26 ; 8:4 ), righteous deed ( 5:18 ), verdict as here (acquittal).
Much more (πολλω μαλλον). Argument a fortiori again. Condition of first class assumed to be true. Note balanced words in the contrast (transgression παραπτωματ, grace χαριτος; death θανατος, life ζωη; the one or Adam του ενος, the one Jesus Christ ; reign βασιλευω in both).
So then (αρα ουν). Conclusion of the argument. Cf. 7:3 , 25 ; 8:12 , etc. Paul resumes the parallel between Adam and Christ begun in verse 12 and interrupted by explanation ( 13 f. ) and contrast ( 15-17 ). Through one trespass (δι' ενος παραπτωματος). That of Adam. Through one act of righteousness (δι' ενος δικαιωματος). That of Christ. The first "unto all men" (εις παντας ανθρωπους) as in verse 12 , the second as in verse 17 "they that receive, etc."
Here again we have "the one" (του ενος) with both Adam and Christ, but "disobedience" (παρακοης, for which see 2Co 10:6 ) contrasted with "obedience" (υπακοης), the same verb καθιστημ, old verb, to set down, to render, to constitute (κατεσταθησαν, first aorist passive indicative, κατασταθησοντα, future passive), and "the many" (ο πολλο) in both cases (but with different meaning as with "all men" above).
Came in beside (παρεισηλθεν). Second aorist active indicative of double compound παρεισερχομα, late verb, in N. T. only here and Ga 2:4 which see. See also εισηλθεν in verse 12 . The Mosaic law came into this state of things, in between Adam and Christ. That the trespass might abound (ινα πλεοναση το παραπτωμα). It is usual to explain ινα here as final, as God's ultimate purpose.
So Denney who refers to Ga 3:19 ff. ; Ro 7:7 f . But Chrysostom explains ινα here as εκβασις (result). This is a proper use of ινα in the Koine as we have seen. If we take it so here, the meaning is "so that the trespass abounded" (aorist active subjunctive of πλεονασω, late verb, see on 2Th 1:3 ; 2Co 8:15 ). This was the actual effect of the Mosaic law for the Jews, the necessary result of all prohibitions.
Did abound more exceedingly (υπερεπερισσευσεν). First aorist active indicative of υπερπερισσευω. Late verb, in N. T. only here and 2Co 7:4 which see. A strong word. If πλεοναζω is comparative (πλεον) περισσευω is superlative (Lightfoot) and then υπερπερισσευω goes the superlative one better. See υπερπλεοναζω in 1Ti 1:14 . The flood of grace surpassed the flood of sin, great as that was (and is).
That--even so grace might reign (ινα--ουτος κα η χαρις βασιλευση). Final ινα here, the purpose of God and the goal for us through Christ. Lightfoot notes the force of the aorist indicative (εβασιλευσεν, established its throne) and the aorist subjunctive (βασιλευση, might establish its throne), the ingressive aorist both times. "This full rhetorical close has almost the value of a doxology" (Denney).