(6-11) Exposition showing how the love of God comes to have this cogency. That love was evidenced in the death of Christ. And consider what that death was. It is rare enough for one man to die for another—even for a good man. Christ died not for good men, but for sinners, and while they were sinners. If then His death had the power to save us from punishment, it is an easy thing to believe that His life will lead us to glory. read more
(7-8) What makes the sacrifice of Christ so paradoxical is that it was undergone for sinners. Even for a righteous man it is rare enough to find another who will be ready to lay down his life. Yet some such persons there are. The one thing which is most extraordinary in the death of Christ, and which most tends to throw into relief the love of God as displayed in it, is that He died for men as sinners, and at the very moment when they were sinning all around Him. read more
(8) Commendeth.—The English word happily covers the double meaning of the Greek. The same word is used (1) of things in the sense of “prove” or “establish,” here and in Romans 3:5; (2) of persons in the sense of “recommend,” in Romans 16:1.His love.—Strictly, His own love. The love both of God and of Christ is involved in the atonement. Its ultimate cause is the love of God, which is here in question. The love of Christ is evidenced by the fact of His death; the love of God is evidenced by the... read more
Simply to Thy Cross I Cling Romans 5:1 In these words the writer reaches a landing-place. It is a landing-place not only in his argument but also in his experience. It is his own triumphant declaration of his standing before God, his liberation from the past, and his security for the future. He has passed into a new world. He has entered a new life. But his experience is not, in his view, peculiar to himself. ' We are justified,' he says, writing to men and women he had never seen. ' We have... read more
Chapter 12PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FOR THE JUSTIFIEDRomans 5:1-11WE reached a pause in the Apostle’s thought with the close of the last paragraph. We may reverently imagine, as in spirit we listen to his dictation, that a pause comes also in his work; that he is silent, and Tertius puts down the pen, and they spend their hearts awhile on worshipping recollection and realisation. The Lord delivered up; His people justified; the Lord risen again, alive for evermore-here was matter for love, joy, and... read more
CHAPTER 5:1-11 1. What Justification Includes. 1-11. The blessed results of justification are next revealed. What justified believers possess and what they may enjoy is the theme of the opening verses of this chapter. The first thing mentioned is that all who are justified by faith have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace was made in the blood of the Cross, He who died for our sins is our peace. His greeting to the assembled disciples on the resurrection day was “Peace be unto... read more
5:8 But God {h} commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet {i} sinners, Christ died for us.(h) He commends his love toward us, so that in the midst of our afflictions we may know assuredly that he will be present with us.(i) While sin reigned in us. read more
Blessings Attending Justification Now as to the means and assurance of present justification, every question has been answered, every doubt fully banished by simple, straightforward truth. Thus every obstacle cleared away, the apostle turns to the joyous work of giving the effects of this justification in its present manifold blessing. This he does in the first eleven verses of Romans 5:1-21. (Verse 12 introduces a new subject, dealing, not with justification from sins, but with the... read more
THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS If a righteousness were not obtainable by the words of the law as we saw in our last lesson, then a Jew especially might well ask in surprise how it were obtainable. To which the apostle replies, that “now apart from the law a righteousness of God is manifested,” (Romans 3:21 RV), i.e., a righteousness which may become man’s without the keeping of the law. This righteousness he describes as: “Witnessed by the law and the prophets,” in other words, taught in the Old... read more
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Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Romans 5:1-11
V.(1-11) A description of the serene and blissful state which the sense of justification brings. Faith brings justification; justification brings (let us see that it does bring) peace—peace with God, through the mediation of Jesus. To that mediation it is that the Christian owes his state of grace or acceptance in the present, and his triumphant hope of glory in the future. Nay, the triumph begins now. It begins even with tribulation, for tribulation leads by gradual stages to that tried and... read more