Romans Chapter 5
If God's Holy Judgment is true for the unbelievers, (chapters 1-4) then His Holy Justification is also true for the believers. This is what the "therefore" is there for.
(Romans 5:1)Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
- Everything in chapters 1-4 proves that we are justified by faith alone and not works
- God is Holy to justify, and He justifies us
- God justifies us by faith, not by the law
- This justification has always been by the same action/agency, grace through faith
- Then (in the Old Testament) it was through Israel only, as a Jew born into Israel, or a Gentile coming to Israel
- Today it is coming through coming to the Messiah to Israel, the LORD Jesus Christ
- This then makes us the Church, neither Jew nor Gentile (in God's eyes) even if we are Jew or Gentile (in man's eyes)
- There is today the nation of Israel, and the nations of the Gentiles, and the Church in the world amongst both
- We as Gentiles do not become one with Israel outside of Jesus Christ, nor does the Church replace Israel-ever
- After the Rapture, there will be only Israel and the Gentile nations again, and the focus will again be on the nation of Israel, only
- Those who reject this reject Scripture, as God has not fulfilled yet all of His promises to Israel of land, thrones, ruling, God being over them, etc.
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
(Romans 5:2)
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Who is the "by whom"?, the LORD Jesus Christ of verse 1
- The key through the door is faith, we enter the door by grace and into grace
- We rejoice that we are saved, which is the glory of God, and we rejoice in the glory of God, so therefore we glorify God
- This is our hope, our only hope in this life is our salvation, not anything in this life which is passing away rapidly (personally, by aging, the world by going downward and away from God daily)
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
- This in the fleshly mind does not make any sense, to glory in tribulations, but we do say, when mature, "Bring it ON!!!!"
- These tribulations, tests, trials show us how to wait, because we have no choice-we cannot speed up God's plans for our lives anyways
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
- By waiting we know the next time that we have to wait, because we have waited before and now know that we must, and we know how
- Because we know this, we know that it will work out in the end this life it will end (because we will be done with the tribulation) or then next life(the persecution of this life or our trial will take us home) and that is our hope, either way
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
- This hope is all we have and the world does not understand why we have it, seeing with their eyes what we are going through and then mocking, taunting us with things like, "If God exists, why doesn't He stop this from happening to you? Why did he not prevent it from happening to you?"
- We know God loves us no matter the tribulations, as it is His best will for us
- If we truly have hope, we will not be ashamed of talking about it to others
- Every definition of the word "abroad' means to share beyond, locally, distally, foreign lands, etc.
In a general sense, at large; widely; not confined to narrow limits. Hence,
- In the open air.
- Beyond or out of the walls of a house, as to walk abroad.
- Beyond the limits of a camp. Deu 23:10
- Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries - as to go abroad for an education. We have broils at home and enemies abroad.
- Extensively; before the public at large.
He began to blaze abroad the matter. Mark 1:45. Est 1. - Widely; with expansion; as a tree spreads its branches abroad.
(Romans 5:6)
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
- It must be remembered that we in our flesh are always without strength
- This was spiritually even more so as unbelievers, helpless, at the enemy's "mercy"
- This was all in God's time, not man's. Four thousand years passed since the first prophecy of the Messiah
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
(Romans 5:7)
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
- When one sacrifices their life for another by choice, one dies so another can live
- In the fleshly realm, this only saves a person from dying-until they die anyways, eventually!
- Even for someone who one might think deserves it, no person really wants to give their life for another
- Even for a brother in Christ (a righteous man), to die instead of them in any situation (was, hostage crisis, organ donation, etc.) would be rare.
- Even an unrighteous, "good" person (in man's eyes only), few would decide to give their own life-how many people rush into a burning building? Respond to an emergency that is deadly, dangerous?
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- We indeed were neither righteous nor good in God's eyes, as there was no good thing in us:
-
- We were born unto sin, as sinners
- We broke the law
- We were alienated from God, as far as the east is from the west
- We were the enemy of God
- We were children of Wrath
- We were in the kingdom of darkness
- We were blind and dead
- We were sinners, which means we "missed the mark" in archery terms, with our bow and arrow
- We were not seeking God
- We were ripe for judgment
- We could do not good to God,as our righteousness was as filthy rags
- Indeed, as wicked sinners, we missed the target altogether!
- God saw the need and sent His Son the LORD Jesus Christ in our place as the perfect archer, the perfect God Man who died for us so we could live.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
- Justification, spoken of thus far for four chapters, was only achieved by the death of Christ
- Jesus was not strangled, poisoned, suffocated, drowned, etc. as none of these would shed blood
- Whippings with a cat-of-nine-tail-whip, pulling out the beard and nails piercing the hands and feet on that Cross would mean bleeding to death by Crucifixion
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.
- The death was what paid for the sin nature and sins; the Resurrection gives us life and hope
- If Jesus had died and was not Resurrected, nothing would save us from HELL!
- We would still die on earth, forever lost and without hope
- Jesus's death gives us life and Jesus's life gives us life
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
- Because of this we have joy, which comes from our hope
- This does not mean we get happiness, but joy
- this does not mean all of our earthly problems go away, just our eternal destiny is sealed
- This hope is an anchor for our soul, as anchors prevent boats from drifting aimlessly at the whim of the tides and winds
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
(Romans 5:12)
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:
- This verse is why we must believe Genesis, literally, as it is written, as any compromise with the religions of man only puts death before Adam, which is impossible in every way
- Adam's world was "very good", so it would not have included dead things
- God said they would die when and if they ate the fruit, not before
- There would be no reason for death without sin
- This calls the LORD a liar
- Death would then be a normal process, instead of caused by sin
- The future without death would make no sense at all
- This would mean the Scriptures are in error
- Death would be a normal, "good" process of life itself and not part of the curse
- Death is a mechanism (along with time) for Darwin's theory of evolution to "work"
- The command to eat meat and the fear of man in animals came after the Flood and not a natural thing which was always there
- The restoration back to the ideal perfection in the future would be meaningless and never happen if there was no literal first perfect, ideal creation
(Acts 3:21)
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
- Even without Moses, there was this curse of death, since the Fall, and the cause was disobeying ONE COMMAND-DO NOT EAT FROM THAT TREE!
- This one command was the only law to disobey, and the only one they did disobey .000
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
(Romans 5:14)
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.
- And again God repeats it. Adam and Eve's sin was the cause of death, and that is the time when it entered the world
- Before and without the Law, many died, because the Law brought death in the same manner that the sin brought death
- Eating the fruit did not save, as did not the Law save
- This included all who were not in the Garden, all who had not been tempted, all who had not eaten the fruit
- This death was imputed to all mankind, even those not born yet, as there were only two people on earth
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.
- The grace given by the death of Jesus Christ was imputed to all mankind, even those not alive the past 2,000 years, as the sin was imputed to all mankind by the first Adam
- The first part of the verse shows the need....severity for severity, harshness for harshness
- Think about how evil, wicked and abominable crucifixion is, and then think how that relates to our sin in God's eyes, how abominable
- Now understand that it was God's pleasure to crucify, sacrifice (torture) His Son because of our sin, just to have us dwell with Him in Heaven, does this demonstrate His love or not?
(Isaiah 53:10)
¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
And not as it was 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.
- If Adam's sin was the only one, we would not have been atoned for. This is for all of our sins, all people throughout history
- This is a massive debt owed, a massive offense from all people combined
- Jesus paid it all for all, not just for Adam and Eve
- Eve was deceived; Adam simply, purposely, willingly disobeyed on his own, without deception, because he was given the command...he got it from the mouth of God. Eve got it from the mouth of Adam.
(1 Timothy 2:13-14)
For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
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.)
- Again it is stated that death came to all of mankind because of one man's sin, Adam, therefore that sin was great, needing an abundance of grace, gifts of righteousness, the gifts of salvation for each person who is a sinner because of the Fall
- Eternal death, even physical death reigns in our life before we get saved. It is on the throne of our life
- Eternal life then reigns in our life after we believe in Jesus Christ
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.
- The previous is the "if this is so".this simply says, "It is so" in the "therefore"
- Judgment and condemnation to the Jew first, and also the Greek, then after believing, the Righteousness of Christ to all men, the the Jew first, and also the Greek
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
- It must be understood that Adam could have (he most certainly did not, but could have) only sinned once, and that would be enough to condemn and judge both Adam and all of us to whom it was passed down, to eternal hell.
- This required the God-Man, the LORD Jesus Christ, to be obedient perfectly for His entire life, up to and including the Cross, in order to pay for that one sin, let alone the ones of all of mankind, for the last 6,000 years to today and into the future, until sin and death destroyed.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
- Later, after Adam, the Law to Moses made us even more disobedient, as Adam had one command, the Jews had many, and so in violating one of those, the same penalty
- This was like hitting the archery target perfectly only one time, versus ten times, a hundred times, perfectly in the center, every time.
- Sin certainly abounded in mankind corporately, and in us, individually, so that debt payment was large, huge, massive
- This lets us understand how much God's heart was and is broken when HE looked upon us, and looks upon mankind
- No matter the amount of sin or sins, the grace is more, always, so this is why a mass murderer like, say, David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, or Jeffrey Dahmer, or Ted Bundy, can get saved.
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
- A simple concept: eternal death versus eternal life
- This simply represents the choice all mankind has: Reject the LORD Jesus Christ for eternal death, or believe in the LORD Jesus Christ for eternal life
- It is free will, and freely available to all
