 Previous Chapter |
 Return to Outline |
 Ask Questions |
 Next Chapter |
Here in these verses Paul lists three benefits in being justified by faith:
At peace with God means that we are no longer at odds with the Lord. While sin caused the quarrel between us and God and we know that God cannot be a peace with a sinner, justification takes away the guilt, covers the sin and so makes way for peace, the peace that passes all understanding. Immediately upon accepting Christ, the obstacle to God's Grace is removed. By faith we lay hold to God's arm, His strength and we are at peace (Isa. 27:4-5)
There is more to this peace than just the cessation of enmity, there is the building of a relationship. Before, God was your worse enemy, now He is your best friend. God is our peace (Eph. 2:14) He is not only the originator of this peace but He is also the maintainer of this peace (Col.1:20)
Secondly, we now have access to God's Grace. He who has God's love is in a state of Grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor. Paul says we now have "access" to this favor which implies that we were not born in this state, but rather, by nature,were carnal beings. Paul speaks of this state as something that we already have. He was led into this state of Grace by the Lord on the road to Damascus. Barnabas and others led Paul in his early life as a Christian but it was Christ that led him into this state of Grace.
Thirdly, we now have knowledge. This, Paul says, is of great help in time of trial. He could have answered Job's question as to why God allowed all the suffering in his life. Paul says that we now have the knowledge that suffering leads us to better things. He says that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us. Notice how we come to this knowledge. It is the work of the Holy Spirit which was given to us when we believed.
In verses 6 thru 11, Paul sums up what we have just declared. Christ died for the
ungodly. In doing this He obtained for those who believe a means of escape from
what we rightly deserve, the wrath of God. So now we are reconciled to God,
justified by his shed blood.
The New Humanity
["Click here for Romans 5:12-21"]
The second part of this section, Made Right With God, describes three religious ages. One, the Age of Natural Law, from Adam to Moses, two, the Age of Mosaic Law, from Moses to Christ and finally, the Age of Grace, the age we now live in.
Lets look briefly at the Age of Natural Law. It was a time of little enlightenment for mankind, a time when what could be known about God was made known through nature. It began with creation. God created everything and it was good. Then, by man, sin came into the world. The question is often asked, why did Adam and Eve sin? The answer seems to be "curiosity". The desire to be like God. Satan simply said to Eve, "Eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and you will be as smart as God, you will have the knowledge of good and evil."
It would appear then that God created man without the knowledge of the difference between good and evil. They were created to do good and please God, but they were not puppets. They had minds of their own and the ability to make decisions. So when Satan tempted them, they fell and did that which God had forbidden them to do. Once man became possessed by a sinful nature, there was no way by which they could return to that "sinless nature" with which they had been created. Therefore, everything that they did from that point on, was sinful. thus Adam's sin was handed down from generation to generation, "imputed" is the word Paul uses.
This is the basic doctrine of the natural state of man, sinful and without excuse before God. With sin, came death. Man had been created to live forever. There was in the Garden of Eden a tree of eternal life. When Adam sinned, God drove them out of the garden to keep them from eating of this fruit. So mankind who had been created to never know death, did, by sin, loose that ability and death became a reality. The wages of sin is death.
Then Paul makes a series of what seems to be "conflicting statements". First he says that sin was in the world before God gave His Law to Moses. Then he says that sin is not counted where there is no Law. But we know that Adam was responsible for his sin, so, there must have been some sort of "Law", before the Mosaic Law. Paul says that it was called the "Natural Law". For Adam, it was very simple. It consisted of one command. "Do not eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." It is the nature of man to want to do that which we are forbidden to do. This nature left man to his own imagination and he created and was active in all kinds of disobedience to his Maker. So it became necessary for God to bring judgment upon mankind because they had disobeyed the Natural Law.
Paul refers to Adam as "a type of one who was to come". One that would be the direct opposite. Adam was the father of all mankind. He sinned and God dealt with him. Christ was sinless but never the less, God dealt with Him. While Adam was the father of sinners, Christ is the father of the "elect". Therefore, where all died because of the sin of Adam, all shall live, because of the sacrifice of Christ. So Adam was a type of one (Christ) who was to come.
Verses 15 thru 19 tell of the second age in our study of man's relation to God, is called the Mosaic Age, the time between Moses and the coming of Christ. You cannot read these verses and believe that salvation is anything but a "free gift" from God. Paul uses the term no less than 5 times in these 5 verses.
In these verses, Paul compares the "imputed sin" of Adam with the "free gift" of Christ. Man had no choice in the sin of Adam, we were born heirs and possessors of the sinful nature of Adam. On the other hand, the "free gift" of salvation, when the Holy Spirit makes it available, is ours by choice. We can remain in Adam's sinful nature or we can obtain righteousness by accepting the free gift of Christ when it is offered. Death is the ultimate end of Adam's sin, life is the ultimate end of Christ's gift of eternal life, by faith.
Adam's sin brought condemnation, the free gift of Christ brings justification. Paul says that were sin abounded through the ages because of the sin of Adam, much more will Grace abound through Jesus Christ.
Verses 20 and 21 tell of the third age in our study of man's relation to God, called the Age of Grace, that time after the death and resurrection of Christ, the time that the Gospel was preached, the time we now live in. So with the Gospel came what we call the "Dispensation of Grace".
The 10 Commandments, given to Moses, grew to 150 by the time of Christ, therefore, Paul says, the more Law, the more sin. But, in the dispensation of Grace, where sin abounds, Grace much more abounds. Where sin brought death, Grace brings life.
Previous Chapter |
Return to Outline |
Ask Questions |
Next Chapter |