TIMES OF OUR LIVES: IN A MONOMYTHPreview
Open in TheBrain

Romans 5

Romans 5 is the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle, while he was in Corinth in the mid-50s AD,[1] with the help of an amanuensis (secretary), Tertius, who adds his own greeting in Romans 16:22.[2]

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 21 verses.

Peace with God through Jesus Christ (5:1–11)

Peace and Hope

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ^2 ^through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. ^3 ^Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ^4 ^perseverance, character; and character, hope. ^5 ^And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

^6 ^You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ^7 ^Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ^8 ^But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

^9 ^Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ^10 ^For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ^11 ^Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:1 opens a new section in Paul's letter. Scottish Free Church minister William Robertson Nicoll imagines "that a pause comes [...] in [Paul's dictation of] his work; that he is silent, and Tertius puts down the pen, and they spend their hearts awhile on worshipping, recollection and realisation.

The Lord delivered up; His people justified; the Lord risen again, alive for evermore – here was matter for love, joy, and wonder".[3]

Paul resumes with "a description of the serene and blissful state which the sense of justification brings":[4]

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

The Textus Receptus reads εἰρήνην ἔχομεν, eirēnēn echomen, 'we have peace' but some manuscripts read εἰρήνην ἔχωμεν, eirēnēn echōmen, 'let us maintain peace with God' and similarly the Vulgate reads pacem habeamus. Theologian Heinrich Meyer argues that this variant "is here utterly unsuitable; because the writer now enters on a new and important doctrinal topic, and an exhortation at the very outset, especially regarding a subject not yet expressly spoken of, would at this stage be out of place".[5] The New Living Translation speaks of "peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us".[6]

Verse 8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— Romans 5:8, New King James Version[7]

Attachments