Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 5

Romans Chapter 5

Introduction

The design of this chapter, which has usually been considered as one of the most difficult portions of the New Testament, especially Romans 5:12-21, is evidently to show the results or benefits of the doctrine of justification by faith. That doctrine the apostle had now fully established. He had shown in the previous chapters:

1. That men were under condemnation for sin;

2. That this extended alike to the Jews and the Gentiles;

3. That there was no way of escape now but by the doctrine of pardon, not by personal merit, but by grace;

4. That this plan was fully made known by the gospel of Christ; and

5. That this was no new doctrine, but was, in fact, substantially the same by which Abraham and David had been accepted before God.

Having thus stated and vindicated the doctrine, it was natural to follow up the demonstration by stating its bearing and its practical influence. This he does by showing that its immediate effect is to produce peace (Romans 5:1). It gives us the privilege of access to the favor of God (Romans 5:2).

But not only this, we are in a world of affliction. Christians, like others, are surrounded with trials. A very important question was whether this doctrine would have an influence in supporting the soul in those trials. This question the apostle discusses in Romans 5:3-11.

He shows that in fact Christians glory in tribulation, and that the reasons why they do so are:

1. That the natural effect of tribulations under the gospel was to lead to hope (Romans 5:3–4).

2. That the cause of this was that the love of God was shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.

This doctrine he further confirms by showing the consolation which would be furnished by the fact that Christ had died for them. This involved a security that they would be sustained in their trials and that a victory would be given them. For:

1. It was the highest expression of love that he should die for enemies (Romans 5:6–8).

2. It followed that if he was given for them when they were enemies, it was much more probable, it was certain, that all needful grace would be furnished to them now that they were reconciled (Romans 5:9–11).

But there was another very material inquiry. Men were not only exposed to affliction, but they were in the midst of a wreck of things—of a fallen world—of the proofs and memorials of sin everywhere. The first man had sinned, and the race was subject to sin and death. The monuments of death and sin were everywhere.

It was to be expected that a remedy from God would have reference to this universal state of sin and woe; and that it would tend to meet and repair these painful and wide-spread ruins. The apostle then proceeds to discuss the question, how the plan of salvation, which involved justification by faith, was adapted to meet these universal and distressing evils (Romans 5:12–21).

The design of this part of the chapter is to show that the blessings procured by the redemption through Christ, and the plan of justification through him, greatly exceed all the evils which had come upon the world in consequence of the apostasy of Adam. And if this was the case, the scheme of justification by faith was complete. It was adapted to the condition of fallen and ruined man, and was worthy of his affection and confidence. A particular examination of this argument of the apostle will occur in the Notes on verses 12-21.

Therefore (oun). Since we are thus justified, or as a consequence of being justified, we have peace.

Being justified by faith.

We. That is, all who are justified. The apostle is evidently speaking of true Christians.

Have peace with God.

True religion is often represented as peace with God (Romans 8:6; Romans 10:15; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22). See also Isaiah 32:17:

And the work of righteousness shall be peace,
And the effect of righteousness
Quietness and assurance for ever.

This is called peace, because:

1. The sinner is represented as the enemy of God (Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:16; James 4:4; John 15:18, 24; John 17:14; Romans 1:30).

2. The state of a sinner's mind is far from peace. He is often agitated, alarmed, trembling. He feels that he is alienated from God. For:

   The wicked are like the troubled sea,
   For it never can be at rest;
   Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. (Isaiah 57:20)

   The sinner, in this state, regards God as his enemy. He trembles when he thinks of his law; fears his judgments; is alarmed when he thinks of hell. His bosom is a stranger to peace. This has been felt in all lands—alike under the thunders of the law of Sinai among the Jews, in the pagan world, and in lands where the gospel is preached. It is the effect of an alarmed and troubled conscience.

3. The plan of salvation by Christ reveals God as willing to be reconciled. He is ready to pardon, and to be at peace. If the sinner repents and believes, God can now consistently forgive him, and admit him to favor. It is therefore a plan by which the mind of God and of the sinner can become reconciled, or united in feeling and in purpose. The obstacles, on the part of God, to reconciliation, arising from his justice and law, have been removed, and he is now willing to be at peace. The obstacles on the part of man, arising from his sin, his rebellion, and his conscious guilt, may be taken away, and he can now regard God as his friend.

4. The effect of this plan, when the sinner embraces it, is to produce peace in his own mind. He experiences peace; a peace which the world gives not, and which the world cannot take away (Philippians 4:7; 1 Peter 1:8; John 16:22).

Usually, in the work of conversion to God, this peace is the first evidence that is felt of the change of heart. Before, the sinner was agitated and troubled. But often suddenly, a peace and calmness is felt, which was before unknown. The alarm subsides; the heart is calm; the fears die away, like the waves of the ocean after a storm. A sweet tranquillity visits the heart—a pure shining light, like the sunbeams that break through the opening clouds after a tempest. The views, the feelings, the desires are changed; and the bosom that was just before filled with agitation and alarm, that regarded God as its enemy, is now at peace with him, and with all the world.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ. By means of the atonement of the Lord Jesus. It is his mediation that has procured it.

We have access. (See Barnes on John 14:6.)

I am the way, etc. (John 14:6). Doddridge renders it, "by whom we have been introduced," etc. This means by whom we have the privilege of obtaining the favor of God which we enjoy when we are justified.

The word translated "access" occurs in only two other places in the New Testament: Ephesians 2:18 and Ephesians 3:12. Through Jesus Christ, the way is opened for us to obtain the favor of God.

By faith. By means of faith (Romans 1:17).

Into this grace. Into this favor of reconciliation with God.

Wherein we stand. In which we now are as a consequence of being justified.

And rejoice. Religion is often represented as producing joy (Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 61:3, 7; Isaiah 65:14, 18; John 16:22, 24; Acts 13:52; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22; 1 Peter 1:8). The sources or steps of this joy are these:

1. We are justified, or regarded by God as righteous.
2. We are admitted into His favor, and abide there.
3. We have the prospect of still higher and richer blessings in the fullness of His glory when we are admitted to heaven.

In hope. This means in the earnest desire and expectation of obtaining that glory. Hope is a complex emotion, made up of a desire for an object and an expectation of obtaining it. Where either of these is lacking, there is not hope.

Where desire and expectation are combined in improper proportions, there is no peace. But where the desire of obtaining an object is attended with an expectation of obtaining it in proportion to that desire, there exists that peaceful, happy state of mind which we call hope.

And the apostle here implies that the Christian has an earnest desire for that glory and that he has a confident expectation of obtaining it. He immediately states that the result of this is that we are sustained by it in our afflictions.

The glory of God. This refers to the glory that God will bestow on us. The word glory usually means splendor, magnificence, honor.

The apostle here refers to that honor and dignity which will be conferred on the redeemed when they are raised up to the full honors of redemption: when they will triumph in the completion of the work, and be freed from sin, pain, and tears, and permitted to participate in the full splendors that will encompass the throne of God in the heavens. (See Barnes on Luke 2:9.)

Compare Revelation 21:22-24; Revelation 22:5; Isaiah 60:19, 20.

And not only so. We not only rejoice in times of prosperity and health. Paul proceeds to show that this plan is no less adapted to produce support in trials.

But we glory. The word used here is the same one that is translated in verse 2 as "we rejoice"—kaucwmeya. It should have been rendered that way here. The meaning is that we rejoice not only in hope, not only in the direct results of justification—in the immediate effect which religion itself produces—but we carry our joy and triumph even into the midst of trials. In accordance with this, our Savior directed His followers to rejoice in persecutions (Matthew 5:11–12; compare to James 1:2, 12).

In tribulations. In afflictions. The word used here refers to all kinds of trials that people are called to endure, though it is possible that Paul referred particularly to the various persecutions and trials they were called to endure as Christians.

Knowing. Being assured of this, Paul's assurance might have arisen from reasoning on the nature of religion and its tendency to produce comfort, or it is more probable that he was speaking here from his own experience. He had found it to be so.

This was written near the close of his life, and it states the personal experience of a man who endured, perhaps, as much as anyone ever did in attempting to spread the gospel, and far more than commonly falls to the lot of mankind. Yet he, like all other Christians, could leave his deliberate testimony to the fact that Christianity was sufficient to sustain the soul in its severest trials (see 2 Corinthians 1:3–6; 11:24-29; 12:9-10).

Worketh. Produces. The effect of afflictions on the minds of Christians is to make them patient. Sinners are irritated and troubled by them; they murmur and become more and more obstinate and rebellious. They have no sources of consolation; they consider God a hard master and become fretful and rebellious in exact proportion to the depth and continuance of their trials.

But in the mind of a Christian—who regards his Father's hand in it, who sees that he deserves no mercy, who has confidence in the wisdom and goodness of God, who feels that it is necessary for his own good to be afflicted, and who experiences its happy, subduing, and mild effect in restraining his sinful passions and in weaning him from the world—the effect is to produce patience.

Accordingly, it will usually be found that those Christians who are longest and most severely afflicted are the most patient. Year after year of suffering produces increased peace and calmness of soul; and at the end of his course, the Christian is more willing to be afflicted and bears his afflictions more calmly than at the beginning. He who on earth was most afflicted was the most patient of all sufferers, and no less patient when He was "led as a lamb to the slaughter" than when He experienced the first trial in His great work.

Patience. "A calm temper, which suffers evils without murmuring or discontent."—Webster.

And patience, experience. Patient endurance of trial produces experience. The word rendered experience (dokimēn) means trial, testing, or that thorough examination by which we ascertain the quality or nature of a thing, as when we test a metal by fire, or in any other way, to ascertain that it is genuine. It also means approbation, or the result of such a trial; the being approved, and accepted as the effect of a trying process. The meaning is, that long afflictions borne patiently show a Christian what he is; they test his religion, and prove that it is genuine. Afflictions are often sent for this purpose, and patience in the midst of them shows that the religion which can sustain them is from God.

And experience, hope. The result of such long trial is to produce hope. They show that religion is genuine; that it is from God; and not only that, but they direct the mind onward to another world, and sustain the soul by the prospect of a glorious immortality there. The various steps and stages of the benefits of afflictions are thus beautifully delineated by the apostle in a manner which accords with the experience of all the children of God.

And hope maketh not ashamed. That is, this hope will not disappoint or deceive. When we hope for an object which we do not obtain, we are conscious of disappointment, perhaps sometimes of a feeling of shame. But the apostle says that the Christian hope is such that it will be fulfilled; it will not disappoint; what we hope for we shall certainly obtain. See Philippians 1:20. The expression used here is probably taken from Psalm 22:4-5:

Our fathers trusted in thee;
They trusted; and thou didst deliver them.
They cried unto thee,
And were delivered;
They trusted in thee,
And were not confounded, [ashamed.]

Because the love of God. Love toward God. There is produced an abundant, an overflowing love to God.

Is shed abroad. Is diffused; is poured out; is abundantly produced (ekkecutai). This word is properly applied to water, or to any other liquid that is poured out or diffused. It is used also to denote imparting or communicating freely or abundantly, and is thus expressive of the influence of the Holy Spirit poured down, or abundantly imparted to men (Acts 10:45). Here it means that love towards God is copiously or abundantly given to a Christian; his heart is conscious of high and abundant love to God, and by this he is sustained in his afflictions.

By the Holy Ghost. It is produced by the influence of the Holy Spirit. All Christian graces are traced to His influence. Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, etc.

Which is given unto us. Which Spirit is given or imparted to us. The Holy Spirit is thus represented as dwelling in the hearts of believers (1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16).

In all these places it is meant that Christians are under His sanctifying influence; that He produces in their hearts the Christian graces; and fills their minds with peace, and love, and joy.