Romans 5:1–11 (ESV)✞: Peace with God Through Faith
In the last few passages Paul has been talking about the fact that we’re saved through our faith in God, not through the actions we perform or the rules we obey (which we usually call our works). Paul says that that was true of Abraham, and it’s true of us.
And now, since that is true, we have peace with God through that faith.
Firstly, our justification through faith means we have peace with God:
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
Why, specifically, is it faith that gives us that peace with God? Because He has done all the work, therefore we can trust in it. If I was saved by my own actions I’d be in a constant state of worry: what if my actions haven’t been enough? What if the bad currently outweighs the good and I’m not in God’s favour? But I’m not trusting in my own actions, I’m trusting in the perfect, omnipotent God, so I can have peace. Jesus has accomplished it on my behalf.
And this should cause joy in the Christian’s heart:
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
I wonder if “the glory of God” meant something new to the Christians, over and above what it had meant to His people in Old Testament times. To understand “the glory of God” is to understand who He is; to understand how magnificent, how holy, how wonderful… and now, after the work that Jesus has done on the cross, to understand how gracious and loving.
To be clear, He had always been gracious and loving, He had demonstrated it time and again, so strictly speaking that’s not new, but we [humans] didn’t understand how gracious, how loving, until Jesus demonstrated the full power of His Grace through His death and resurrection.
Where Paul takes things next, though, is interesting – and maybe unwelcome for most of us:
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
We don’t like the idea of suffering (for obvious reasons), but Paul points out that this doctrine of receiving God’s Grace through faith means that we can rejoice in our suffering. Why? Not because we enjoy it but because it will lead to endurance. And that endurance will produce character. And that character will evolve into hope. And that hope is in God, so it will never be put to shame – God will not let us down. So when I do suffer, I can trust in God, I can continue to experience the love He has poured into my heart—no amount of suffering can remove that—and I can, through the Holy Spirit, try to learn from my suffering and become more like Jesus Himself.
Again I have to go back to the faith vs. works discussion: if my hope was based on my own works instead of faith in Him then suffering would always cause doubt: am I suffering because of my own sin? Is it because I’ve lost favour with God? We know from the life of Job (and others) that this isn’t always the case; sometimes suffering comes through no fault of our own. We also know from the life of David (and others) that sometimes suffering is a result of our own actions. However, we know from the teachings in the New Testament that this will never mean I’ve lost God’s Grace. I never have to worry that my suffering is a sign I’m no longer a Christian, or that I’m no longer receiving God’s grace; it might be a result of my own actions, it might even be a form of correction coming from God, but even if that’s the case it’s a matter of Him making me a better Christian, not taking my salvation away from me – because, again, that’s not dependent on me, it’s dependent on Jesus, whose work is bigger than any sin I can commit.
At this point Paul reminds us again for whom Christ died: Us. That is: sinners.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In a sense this is basic Christian doctrine. Christ died for sinners who couldn’t save themselves. However, given the context of what Paul is talking about, this whole passage of 5:1–11 is about the peace we have with God through faith. That peace means that we can have joy even in our sufferings; that peace also means that we can take a cold, hard look at our sinful hearts, really come to terms with who we were/are and what we deserve, but we can do so in the confidence of the Grace we have already received.
The older I get the more I come to understand my own sinfulness; but the better I understand that sinfulness, the better I understand the love and Grace God has bestowed on me. Christ didn’t ask me to get better and then save me; I couldn’t have done so even if I’d wanted to (which I didn’t at the time). He saved me first, and then asked me to become more like Him, which is what my renewed heart now wanted anyway.
It’s not Paul’s main point, but I think we should also extend this passage further into our own way of thinking: we (in North America, at least, and maybe beyond) have developed a concept of the “deserving poor.” Christians in 21st Century North America are more than willing to give to the poor – if we feel they deserve it. We love the idea of giving to someone who’s poor, receiving heartfelt gratitude, leading to a transformed heart, and that formerly poor person now learning to help themselves and devote themselves to God. That’s generosity that accomplished something!
Woe be to us if Christ had ever viewed salvation that way! Not a person ever born in the history of the world would be salvageable! Christ died for me when I was a sinner, and I’m still a sinner, and He still loves me. If I am going to be like Christ it means helping those who need help – not those who deserve help, those who need help. In some cases that help will result in Hollywood-style transformation in people’s lives, and in the other 99.997% of the cases it won’t. In some cases that help will result in heartfelt thanks from the receiver and I can go home feeling very good about myself, and in the other 99.997% of cases the help will be received grudgingly, maybe even with insults against my faith.
And when I give help that doesn’t turn out the way I want it to—the way Hollywood has conditioned the Christian to think the help is supposed to be received from “deserving” people—what will happen? Well, in a sense, this is a very, very small form of suffering on my part. So… it will lead to endurance. The more I try to help (and receive no thanks, or maybe even get insulted for my efforts), the more I’ll learn to accept that. In fact… the more that happens, the more like Christ I’ll actually become – in other words, it will build my character. All the while, becoming more like Christ will cause me, more and more, to rejoice in the hope I have in God. And when I try to help someone and am rebuffed or insulted for my efforts, instead of getting angry, I’ll have the confidence in Christ’s salvation to be able to honestly examine my own heart and motives: maybe the way in which I’m giving is somehow badly implemented, or even coming from wrong motives; if so, I can fix that. Maybe everything I’m doing is fine and it’s unjust suffering to be insulted for my efforts, in which case I’m truly being Christ-like!
Because Christ died for me while I was still a sinner. Who else would have done that? Who would have died for me – an unrighteous boy? But God showed His love for me in that, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.
I am not being like Him if I don’t go out and do likewise.
As mentioned, this passage is focusing on the peace we have with God through our faith. Which means… we must not have had peace with Him otherwise! In other words, what do we have peace from? From the wrath of God.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Paul spent much of 1:18–3:20 explaining that we’re all naturally sinners and I won’t rehash all of that here1, but I will comment that the word “wrath” continues to sound harsh to the modern reader’s ear – yet it’s a word Paul keeps using! At a quick glance, in the ESV version, this is the 7th time he has used it so far in the book of Romans alone, and it’s not the last!
I think it’s important for the modern-day Christian to remember that “wrath” is not an Old Testament concept, it’s a core part of who God is: He is a Holy God; a just God; a God who does not—CANnot—have sin in His presence; He is a God who feels wrath toward sin. Sin is the opposite of everything God stands for. However, I (and all other Christians) have been saved from that wrath; it was poured out on Jesus, so I’m now justified by His action.
In fact… that being the case, if we’re “justified” through Christ’s death on the cross then, even more, we can be saved by Jesus’ life:
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
I’ll quote my favourite Study Bible, here, and let them do the work of parsing the technical terms Paul is using in “justification” and “salvation.”
Rom. 5:10 As in v. 9, Paul argues from the greater to the lesser, though here he speaks in terms of reconciliation (the language of friendship) rather than justification (a legal term). Since Christians are now reconciled to God through Christ’s death, they can be assured that they will be saved on the day to come (here “saved,” Gk. sōzō, includes not only justification at the start of the Christian life but also completed sanctification, glorification, freedom from final condemnation, and future rewards). But here the salvation is based on his life. The reference is to Christ’s resurrection, showing that both the death and resurrection of Christ are necessary for salvation (see 4:25). Chapter 6 will develop the theme of union with Christ in his resurrection life.
ESV Study Bible
If Christ’s death has “justified” me before God, then all the more, as Christ lives in me, am I being “saved.”
But it’s not just a matter of being saved from my sin, being reconciled to God, having His wrath turned away, His Grace toward me also causes immeasurable joy:
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
I think that’s part of the reason Paul is using the word “reconciliation” as opposed to just “forgiveness;” what he’s talking about here is more than just Jesus taking way my sins; as amazing as that is, it’s not the goal it’s just the means. Jesus took away my sins so that I could be reconciled to God; so that I could have a relationship with Him.
The reason I sometimes delve so deeply into how sinful we are is not that I want to revel in that, it’s to get to the flip side: yes, I’m very sinful, so I can’t boast before God, but God loves me so much that He saved me from that sin, freeing me to be in His presence. I get a taste of that in this life, and in the next I’ll literally be in His presence
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