Romans 5:1–11

Original Meaning

Being Justified Means We Have Peace and Hope (5:1–4)

WITH THE WORDS “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,” Paul signals an important transition in his argument. He has established the truth of justification by faith in chapters 1–4. Now he will elaborate the results of the new status God has given us in Christ.

(1) One of those results is “peace with God.” “Peace” is a rich biblical word. Our English word “peace,” in keeping with the secular Greek use of eirene, often has a negative sense: the absence of hostility. But the Old Testament and Jewish conception of peace, shalom, was much more positive, connoting a general sense of harmonious well-being. Note Isaiah 32:17–18:

The fruit of righteousness will be peace;

the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

in secure homes,

in undisturbed places of rest.

This peace is the objective state of harmony with God that believers who have been justified enjoy. As the marginal reading in the NIV here suggests, it is hard to be certain about precisely what Paul is saying concerning this peace. The problem is a textual variant in the Greek text. Most manuscripts have the word echomen, an indicative verb meaning “we have peace.” The NIV, along with most other translations, assumes this reading. But some very good manuscripts have the subjunctive form of this same verb, echōmen, which means “Let us have peace” or “Let us enjoy peace.” A good argument can be made for this latter reading as the lectio difficilior (the more difficult reading),3 but we think context finally decides the issue in favor of the usual rendering.4 As 5:2 suggests, Paul is in an “indicative” mode, detailing for us the benefits that our new justified status brings.

(2) Another wonderful result of our justification is “access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (v. 2). The Greek word behind “access” (prosagoge) suggests the same idea as the English word, as when, for instance, we say a person has “access” to the President. But Paul surprises us by claiming not, as we would expect, that we now have constant access to God, but that we have access “into this grace.” He therefore implies again how fundamental the notion of grace is to him. But grace here does not, as in these earlier verses, refer to the freedom with which God acts toward his creatures. Rather, it is a state in which the believer lives. God’s free giving to us does not stop when we become Christians. It continues to be poured out on us so much that we can be said to live in a constant state of grace (cf. 5:21; 6:14, 15).

(3) The third result of our new justified state is that “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” The verb for “rejoice” (kauchaomai) suggests both the idea of taking confidence in and of rejoicing in; some versions translate “boast” (see comments on 2:17; 3:27). Paul introduces what becomes the theme of this paragraph: the hope we have as Christians to share in God’s glory.

But Paul quickly adds in a surprising development, “we also rejoice [or boast, kauchaomai again] in our sufferings” (5:3). Having ministered with people for so many years, Paul knows that many will react to this enumeration of blessings in one of two ways. Some will think he is promising believers a trouble-free existence, suggesting life will be a “bed of roses” now that they belong to God. Others, who have been Christians long enough to know that suffering does not come to an end with conversion, may dismiss Paul as an unrealistic dreamer. Thus Paul takes the offensive. Yes, he says in effect, I know Christians will continue to suffer. But life’s difficulties do not contradict what I have been saying about the wonderful blessings of being a Christian; in fact, God actually uses them to bring us even greater blessing.

The key is the way we respond to the difficult trials that come our way. What we must do is to recognize that God uses them to build into our lives “perseverance” (hypomone; cf. 2:7; 15:4–5), which, in turn, leads to “character” (dokime, the quality that comes from having been “proved”; cf. 2 Cor. 2:9; 8:2; 9:13; 13:3; Phil. 2:22). Then we can truly “rejoice” in the midst of suffering, knowing that God is at work even in these evil things to bring us blessing. Paradoxically, Paul claims at the end of verse 4, suffering can actually lead to “hope.” Just as resistance to a muscle strengthens it, so challenges to our hope can strengthen it.

Bridging Contexts

PEACE. Peace is an elastic term. Like the waxed nose in Luther’s famous analogy, it can be stretched to mean many different things. I am old enough to have been in college during the years when everyone was talking about “peace.” Long-haired strangers greeted one another with the single word “Peace.” “Give peace a chance” was the cry of the day. It even had its own symbol. At my present advanced age, I find myself beginning to long for the “peace” of retirement. Each of us, therefore, brings some baggage from our culture and personal experience to the phrase “peace with God” in verse 1. Some of that baggage may help us understand the true sense of the phrase, but much of it will simply lead us astray. As always, we need first to establish what the phrase meant to a first-century Jewish-Christian like Paul.

We begin where we usually do when we try to learn how Paul used a word: with the Greek Old Testament. The translators of the LXX used eirene (peace) for the common and wide-ranging Hebrew word shalom. This word could be applied, like our word “peace,” to a cessation of hostilities between peoples, as when Joshua entered into a “treaty of peace” with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9:15). But the word more often has a religious sense, referring to the well-being and prosperity of people who have been blessed by God.

Shalom occurs especially often as a blessing, as when Eli responds to Hannah, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him” (1 Sam. 1:17; see also, e.g., Gen. 26:29; 44:17). As this blessing suggests, God is viewed as the One who gives the gift of peace. Note too the well-known benediction, “the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Num. 6:26).

Especially significant for Paul is the prophets’ use of shalom to depict the salvation that God will bring to his people in the last days. Isaiah 52:7, for example, brings together three terms that are theologically important in Paul (quoted in Rom. 10:15): “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ ” (italics added; see also Isa. 54:10; Ezek. 34:25; 37:26). When God intervenes in the last days to deliver Israel from her enemies and establish her securely in the land, she enjoys ultimate peace. In keeping with the typical New Testament perspective on the fulfillment of these prophecies in Christ, Paul transfers the term peace from the national blessing of Israel to the personal experience of every believer.

The peace God gives us in Christ has two closely related, but distinguishable, aspects. First is the “peace of God,” an inner sense of security and serenity that wells up in our hearts when we appreciate the blessings we enjoy in Christ (see, e.g., Phil. 4:7). But it is the second aspect that Paul refers to in Romans 5:1: “peace with God,” the objective position we find ourselves in because God has ceased to be hostile toward us and has reconciled us to himself (see 5:10–11). Paul often uses peace in this sense (see esp. Eph. 2:14, 15, 17; also Rom. 2:10; 8:6; 14:17).

Justification and judgment. For Paul, as we have seen, God’s verdict of justification marks the entrance into the Christian life. When we respond to the gospel in faith, God declares us innocent and our relationship with him begins. To be sure, some verses in Paul (see esp. Gal. 5:6) may suggest justification is more than a past event for the believer.7 But, on the whole, as Romans 5:1 suggests, justification is the entry point into our Christian experience.

In Jewish theology, however, justification and its opposite, condemnation, were verdicts that would be delivered only on the Day of Judgment. Jesus uses the language in typical Jewish fashion: “By your words you will be acquitted [justified], and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). Paul’s claim that a person can be justified in this life is a radical departure from Jewish thinking. In a way characteristic of the New Testament perspective, he proclaims that believers in Christ can experience an eschatological event.

This does not mean, however, that Paul does away with the typical Jewish teaching about a future day of judgment. He affirms that some day Christians as well as non-Christians will have to stand before God to be judged. To be sure, some theologians think Christians will come to that Day only to have the degree of reward to which they are entitled determined. But I think the New Testament teaches that the eternal destiny of all people, believers or not, will be determined on that day (see Matt. 25:31–46; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10).

With this background in view, we begin to understand better why Paul must focus on the issue of assurance in these verses. Christians, he has asserted, are “justified.” But we have not yet appeared before God on the Judgment Day. How can we know that this verdict of justification will do us any good when that Day comes? It is this underlying question that sparks his teaching here and throughout these chapters. The apostle’s answer is clear: In justifying us, God has already pronounced his verdict over us. It can be neither rescinded nor changed. True, we must still appear before God to have our “case” disposed of. But we can face that day with utter confidence, since God in Christ has already decided the case in our favor. Justification releases us from any uncertainty or fear about that judgment.

Contemporary Significance

LIVING OUT OF GRACE. As we commented above, Paul’s claim that we have continuing “access” to grace and that we “stand” in it reveals the importance of the term grace for him. Grace reminds us that God intervenes on behalf of his rebellious creation out of his own free will and without any obligation (see 4:4–5). While God always acts in grace, so radical and so far-reaching is his intervention on our behalf in Christ that the word can be especially applied to the event of justification and its consequences. But what we sometimes forget, and what Paul’s words in 5:2 remind us of, is that grace stands over the entire Christian experience. We not only get into relationship with God by grace; we live out that relationship day-by-day by grace. Thus, we must never fall into the trap of thinking that we can put grace behind us.

The daily provision I enjoy comes not from my hard work but from God, who has chosen in his grace to bless me. Whatever good I accomplish in ministry comes because God graciously works through me. I “stand in grace”; I live out my life, in all its dimensions, within the sphere of blessing that Christ has won for me. The famous hymn “Amazing Grace” puts it well. Yes, as the first stanza reminds us, God’s amazing grace has “saved a wretch like me.” But that same amazing grace undergirds all my life. We go on to sing in the fourth stanza, “’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”

Peace and suffering. People give many different meanings to the word “peace” (see Bridging Contexts section), but almost everyone wants it. People want to be “at peace” with themselves, and they hope to “rest in peace.” Yet no ultimate peace is possible without coming to terms with God. People who search for peace will never find it until they find peace with God. Lack of such peace is the basic human predicament. Indeed, people are in a state of hostility with him. Paul refers to this state in verse 10, calling us “God’s enemies.”

Scholars debate about whether this means that we are hostile to God8 or that God is hostile to us.9 But we do not need to choose between these alternatives.10 As Paul has made clear, we all have a natural, built-in hostility toward God. Despite the revelation of his existence and power in the world around us (cf. 1:19–22), we turn away from him, refusing to worship him or to give thanks to him (1:20–21). In turn, God must stand in judgment over us, sentencing us to experience his wrath (1:18; 2:5).

Disruption in our relationship with our Creator effects all areas of our existence. No one can experience true “peace” until he or she has “peace with God,” available in Jesus Christ, who is, indeed, “our peace” (Eph. 2:14). Only if the hostility between God and ourselves is ended can we ever have the comfort of true serenity and well-being that all people crave. We can enjoy the “peace of God” only by first establishing “peace with God.” If you are reading this book, you are probably a believer in Jesus Christ and you have the “peace with God” that the gospel offers. But some of you may not have made this commitment. God invites you to accept his offer of peace and so enjoy the comfort that comes only from knowing you are in harmony with your Creator.

But let us not misunderstand what the peace that God wants to give us really means. True peace, we are tempted to think, should mean that we have no more worries and no more problems. Some Christians, indeed, argue for this definition of “peace with God.” They teach that the Christian, if exhibiting “real faith,” will enjoy material prosperity and physical well-being. These are the purveyors of the “health-and-wealth” gospel, who spread their ideas through radio, television, and websites. But even if we do not buy into the extreme of the health-and-wealth gospel, most of us, I suspect, particularly in North America, are prone to the tendency to dismiss suffering as a rather remote possibility and perhaps to regard it as something basically out of keeping with the “victorious Christian life.”

Thus, it is important to take to heart what Paul says about suffering in verses 3–4. These verses make four points, implicitly or explicitly, that can give us a better perspective on suffering. (1) Suffering is a normal part of a consistent Christian life. Just after he planted churches on the first missionary journey, Paul warned his new converts, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Jesus himself promised that “in this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Paul can even call suffering a gracious gift from the Lord: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil. 1:29).

Everywhere the New Testament assumes that believers will suffer. God has adopted us as his children, but we still live in a world hostile to God and his values. Precisely because we are God’s children, and to the degree that we live out his values, people hostile to God will be hostile toward us. Paul assumes this perspective by introducing the fact of suffering in verse 3 without any preamble or explanation.

(2) God uses suffering to accomplish his purposes. What Paul says about suffering in verses 3–4 is echoed in James 1:2–4 and 1 Peter 1:6: The trials of life are a means of testing our faith and giving substance and strength to our Christian commitment. I wish this were not so. I do not take any perverse pleasure in going through hard times. I certainly do not look forward to painful experiences that will undoubtedly yet come. But if I am honest, I must also admit that I too easily settle down in this world. I am prone to lose my fervor for God and his work and to seek security and comfort in this life at the expense of my Christian values.

I know from experience that the difficult times I go through loosen my tie to this world and bring me closer to the Lord. A young pastor in our area, a man with three children still at home, was dying of cancer. He said that he would not have wanted to avoid this trial because of the wonderful spiritual benefit it brought to him. I sometimes wish I could mature in Christ the way I should without having to suffer. But I know in my heart that I am just not built that way and that only suffering will pry me from this world and its pleasures.

(3) We are to rejoice in the midst of, but not in, suffering. The pastor whom I just referred to was sincere in what he said about the spiritual benefit of his suffering. But this does not mean that he did not grieve to be leaving his family behind or groan from the pain. He did not think the cancer was a good thing or something to rejoice in. Yet some Christians almost go this far in their application of verses like Romans 5:3—as if we are to praise God for cancer, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one. We must never praise God for, or rejoice in, evil things. God hates these things. They are no part of his original creation, and he will someday eradicate them. Paul calls on us to rejoice in the midst of afflictions, and even to rejoice because of afflictions (knowing what God will accomplish with them). But he does not ask us to be joyful about the affliction itself.

(4) The suffering Paul speaks of here includes all the difficulties of this life. The word Paul uses for “sufferings” in verse 3 is the plural of thlipsis (tribulations). He sometimes uses this word to refer to persecution in the narrow sense—that is, difficulties experienced because of one’s witness for Christ (e.g., 1 Thess. 1:6). Some interpreters think that most New Testament passages about suffering, including this one, have this more restrictive meaning. They are certainly right to claim that suffering “for the sake of Christ” is often the focus (see, e.g., 1 Peter). But even in texts such as these, I am not sure that we can confine the reference to persecution.

In a certain sense, everything that a Christian suffers is “on behalf of Christ.” The evil things we face reflect the conflict between “this age,” dominated by Satan and sin, and “the age to come,” to which the believer has been transferred by faith. All suffering betrays the presence of the enemy and attacks our relationship with Christ. Furthermore, as we have argued, the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 5 are closely related. This means that the suffering Paul mentions in 5:3 is likely related to the trials he lists in 8:35: “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.” More than persecution per se is included.

Original Meaning

We Hope Because God Loves Us in Christ (5:5–8)

HAVING RETURNED TO the subject of “hope” at the end of verse 4, Paul introduces in verse 5 the aspect of hope that will dominate the rest of this paragraph: the certainty that believers will indeed receive what they hope for. While the NIV renders the verb here as a present, it is better to take it as a future: “Hope will not disappoint us” (the Greek verb, kataischynei, can be either). This is because Paul is alluding to Old Testament passages that speak of people who hope in God not being disappointed or ashamed at the time of judgment (see Ps. 22:5; 25:3, 20; Isa. 28:16 [quoted by Paul in Rom. 9:33 and 10:11]). Our claim that Christ will rescue us from God’s wrath will some day be vindicated. God will do what he promised.

How can we be sure? In Romans 5:5b–10, Paul gives two basic reasons: God’s love for us in Christ (vv. 5b–8) and God’s work for us in Christ (vv. 9–10). God does not mete out his love for us in tiny measures; he “has poured” (ekcheo) it into our hearts. This verb is used to describe the “pouring out” of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17–18). Paul therefore cleverly alludes to the Spirit here. It is the Spirit, dwelling in the heart of believers, who communicates God’s love to us (cf. Rom. 5:5). Paul says much more about this ministry of the Holy Spirit and about God’s love for us in chapter 8.

Alongside this subjective evidence of God’s love, we also have objective proof of that love in the cross of Christ. At the time God determined, at just the right point in salvation history, “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6; cf. also, for this sense of time, 3:26; 8:18; 13:11).5 Sending his Son to die for people who refused to worship him (the basic connotation of “ungodly”) reveals the magnitude of God’s love for us.

To make sure we do not miss this point, Paul reinforces it in verse 7 with an analogy: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.” Though the issue is disputed, a difference between “a good man” and “a righteous man” seems to be the key to the interpretation. A “righteous” person is one we might respect, but a “good” person is one we might love.6 Rarely will a person give his or her life for someone they merely respect; but occasionally a person dies for the sake of someone they love—a soldier for his buddies, a parent for her children. The awesome quality of God’s love for us is seen in that Christ died for us while we were “still sinners”—hating God, in rebellion against him (v. 8).