Romans - Chapter 5
5:1-11 Rejoice in the Lord.
The early chapters of Romans expose the awful state of the human condition. Paul begins the written journey now to show the divine plan in Christ which has brought justification and reconciliation through faith. He says it is right and proper that Christians should rejoice in that relationship. The relationship between mind and emotion (between heart and head) is important. Christians have a better chance of full understanding of the gospel if they are both emotionally and spiritually stable. This joyful balance should be seen in the private life of a believer as well as in the corporate life of the church. Paul reveals that to seek and find that balance brings peace through the Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is peace in the bitter long war between God and man who has been in rebellion since Eden. Paul also teaches that those who have fallen short of righteous life can now look forward to sharing not their own goodness, but sharing the glorious experience of all that God is through faith.
Paul says we can rejoice in problems, and tribulation when we have Christ in our lives. That tribulation produces perseverance which produces character which produces hope. It is the knowledge of the divine process that allows the believer to find joy in all situations life may bring. We are also to rejoice in spiritual possessions and verses 6-8 allow us a lesson that Jesus died not for just law abiding people but also for all who are sinners still.
There is a link here between what mankind is and what mankind does. People lacking strength have lived a life of terrible spiritual failure for which they are responsible. God's loving provision deals not only with what mankind is but also with what he has done. Verses 9-10 teach us that our possibility for salvation resides in the fact that we are not able to be justified before God on our own. The blood of the sacrifice of Jesus accomplished that fact for us. We must remember that not only did Jesus die for us, but He lived for us as well. Had He not lived a sinless life He would not have qualified to bring atonement for us all who are His. So we rejoice in the greatness of the things we possess because He loved us. The best rejoicing is left for last here in these verses, we rejoice “in God”. The more we come to appreciate what God has revealed of His plan to allow us His salvation, the more we can show our joy to be included in His divine plan.
5:12-21 The four things that reign over us.
Now Paul aims his spiritual arrows at the four things that reign over us in the constant struggle we endure, sin, death, grace, and life eternal.
Adam's sin in garden was a calculated and free choice to disobey God and he suffered the consequences, as have we all since his sin nature descended to all who came after (except Jesus). Adam walked clearly into rebellion. God had warned Adam that in sin came death. Paul says it directly in 1st Cor 15:22, “... in Adam all die.” Sin entered the human race through Adam and since that moment has “abounded” among us all. Once it entered and abounded, it has come to reign over mankind strongly.
In sin came the horror of death. In Adam's case, his death was about 900 years later physically, but on the day he sinned, spiritual death came upon him. Since then, death has reigned over mankind with only two exceptions, Enoch and Elijah.
Paul calls Adam a type of Him who was to come and shows us the idea that through one man sin and death arrived and abounded, and through one man, Jesus, grace arrived to reign over those who became His through faith. Adam brought “offense”, Jesus brought the “free gift”; the offense meant death but the free gift brought justification and life eternal. Disobedience made sinners while obedience makes many righteous through Christ, not of ourselves.
For every sin that robs and destroys there is more grace to rebuild and restore. Through physical birth, all are related to Adam. Through new spiritual rebirth, many are reborn through grace. Grace not only reigns here, but throughout eternity because the result of grace is eternal life.
Life eternal means that the new life (as new creatures in Christ) has been granted to each believer at the moment of salvation. So the reign of life eternal through grace gifted by the Lord reaches over this life into the next and eternal life.
